Direct degradation of dyes by piezoelectric fibers through scavenging low frequency vibration

Highlights: • BZT-BCT fibers can scavenge low level mechanical energy to decompose organic dye. • The degradation comes from OH and O₂⁻ generated by the deformation of nanofibers. • The degradation efficiency can be greatly enhanced by decreasing fibers' diameters. • Provide an effective, practical and low-cost method to decompose organic dye. A newly discovered nanometer material-mediated piezoelectrochemical (PZEC) for the direct conversion of mechanical energy to chemical energy has attracted increasing attention, for its great potential to be a green dye water decomposition technique. However, it is far from being a cost-effective and practical technique because only ultrasonic can be scavenged to decomposed organic pollutant in previous studies. Here, we prepared 0.5Ba(Zr_0.2Ti_0.8)O₃-0.5(Ba_0.7Ca_0.3)TiO₃ (BZT-BCT) piezoelectric fibers for the degradation of dye solution via slow stirring and studied the degradation mechanism. It provides a practical, green and low-cost method for decomposing organic dye by scavenging waste mechanical energy from the surrounding environment.