NaNbO ₃ Nanorods: Photopiezocatalysts for Elevated Bacterial Disinfection and Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

In the present work, ferroelectric sodium niobate (NaNbO ₃) nanorods are formulated to attain photopiezocatalysis for water pollutant degradation and bacterial disinfection. NaNbO ₃ nanorods, integrating the advantages of photocatalysis (generation of free charge carriers) and piezocatalysis (separation of these charge carriers), possess synergistic effects, which results in a higher catalytic activity than photocatalysis and piezocatalysis alone. Active species that are involved in the catalytic process are found to be ^•O ₂ ^– < OH ^• < h ⁺, indicating the significance of piezocatalysis and photocatalysis. The degradation efficiency of sodium niobate (NaNbO ₃) nanorods for Rhodamine B in the presence of both sunlight and ultrasonic vibration is 98.9% within 60 min ( k = 7.6 × 10 ^–2 min ^–1). The piezo potential generated by NaNbO ₃ nanorods was reported to be 16 V. The antibacterial activity of the produced sample was found to be effective against Escherichia coli. With inhibitory zones of 23 mm, sodium niobate has a greater antibacterial activity.