Abstract The usage of semiconductor photocatalyst has been received great attention in recent years due to their wide application in photocatalytic water-splitting and degradation of pollutants in waste water and environmental remediation application, etc. In this study, we demonstrated the efficient synergistically piezo-phototronic effect (which is combined activity of piezo- and photocatalytic) of ZnO-Ag8S hybrid for the degradation of an organic dye. Hydrothermal method was adopted for the growth of ZnO tetrapods on the surface of glass substrate. Ag8S modified ZnO obtained by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method, has shown an increased photo-decolorization rate compared with bare photocatalyst. This piezo-photocatalytic hybrid material plays an important role in electron trapping and also hindered the charge carrier recombination. The photo-degradation mechanism of Rhodamine-B dye with Ag8S modified piezoelectric ZnO hybrid material has shown 7.3 fold increment when compared with bare photocatalyst. Our study reveals that ZnO-Ag8S hybrid shows a better visible-light piezophototronic activity which further explores a new catalyst design approach for existing photocatalytic application in environmental remediation.

中文翻译：

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ZnO-Ag8S杂化物降解有机染料分子的高效可见光压电光电活性

摘要 半导体光催化剂在光催化分解水、降解废水中的污染物和环境修复等方面有着广泛的应用，近年来受到了极大的关注。 ZnO-Ag8S 杂化物降解有机染料的效果（压电和光催化的组合活性）。采用水热法在玻璃基板表面生长ZnO四足体。与裸光催化剂相比，通过连续离子层吸附和反应 (SILAR) 方法获得的 Ag8S 改性 ZnO 显示出更高的光脱色率。这种压电-光催化杂化材料在电子俘获方面起着重要作用，也阻碍了电荷载流子的复合。与裸光催化剂相比，Ag8S 改性压电 ZnO 杂化材料对罗丹明-B 染料的光降解机制显示出 7.3 倍的增量。我们的研究表明，ZnO-Ag8S 杂化物显示出更好的可见光压电光电活性，这进一步探索了一种新的催化剂设计方法，用于现有光催化在环境修复中的应用。