Versatile BiFeO3 shining in piezocatalysis: From materials engineering to diverse applications

Materials scientists have long been exploring advanced materials for environmental and energy applications, with piezocatalysis emerging as a promising technology for sustainable solutions. BiFeO₃ (BFO), a versatile material known for its unique piezoelectric, multiferroic, and optical properties, has garnered significant attention for its potential in piezocatalysis, specifically for organic pollutant degradation, hydrogen production, CO₂ reduction, and sterilization. Despite the progress in BFO research, challenges related to its performance optimization and mechanistic understanding persist. A recent review paper by a team of researchers from Harbin Institute of Technology, led by Professor Dawei Wang, presents a comprehensive analysis of BFO-based piezocatalysis, shedding light on its structural features, synthesis methods, optimization strategies, and diverse applications.

The paper, published in Journal of Advanced Ceramics on February 12, 2025, offers an in-depth discussion of the piezocatalytic mechanisms, including energy band theory, screening charge effects, and displacement current theory, providing new insights into how the piezoelectric effect influences the redox processes during catalytic reactions.

“The multifaceted properties of BFO, coupled with its high piezoelectric performance, make it a highly promising candidate for piezocatalysis. Given the recent attention to BFO and its remarkable performance across various piezocatalytic applications, a comprehensive review of BFO in piezocatalysis is essential to drive further advancements and inspire the development of highly efficient BFO-based piezocatalytic systems.” said Dawei Wang, professor at Harbin Institute of Technology, whose research focuses on advanced electronic ceramics and their applications in energy conversion.

In this review, the authors also address the previously underestimated ferroelectric polarization effect of BFO, particularly in CO₂ reduction, and provide a critical evaluation of its role in enhancing piezocatalytic activity. “This review bridges the gap between theoretical and practical applications of BFO in piezocatalysis, offering new perspectives on optimizing BFO-based systems for future applications,” Wang added.

The review further explores the challenges associated with large-scale production, performance enhancement, and the need for better mechanistic understanding to push BFO-based piezocatalysis toward more efficient and sustainable systems. It also outlines the future directions of research, including the optimization of BFO synthesis methods, enhancement of piezoelectric properties, and addressing the real-world challenges for practical piezocatalytic applications.

“This comprehensive review not only provides an understanding of BFO’s role in piezocatalysis but also sets the stage for future research to harness its full potential for environmental and energy applications,” said Wang.

The work published in Journal of Advanced Ceramics highlights the growing potential of BFO in piezocatalysis, offering both foundational insights and a roadmap for advancing high-efficiency piezocatalytic systems in the future.

Other contributors include Jian Dai, Zhenhao Fan, Hang Xie, Fu Huang, Yunfei Chang from the School of Instrumental Science and Engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology in Harbin, China; Yitao Jiao from the Institute of Applied Physics and Materials Engineering at University of Macau, in Macau, China; a Ahmad Azmin Mohamad from the School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering at Universiti Sains Malaysia in Malaysia; Yangke Long from Shenzhen Institute of Information Technology in Shenzhen, China.

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52472122, 52072092 and 52372106), the Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province (No. YQ2019E026) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2023FRFK03048).

About Author

Dawei Wang is a tenured professor and doctoral advisor at Harbin Institute of Technology, and a national-level high-caliber young talent. He has been recognized on the global list of top 2% scientists, the CAS Hundred Talents Program, and as a high-level talent in Heilongjiang Province and Shenzhen. His research focuses on precision acousto-optic instruments and advanced electronic materials/components. He has achieved a series of original, high-quality research results, publishing over 100 academic papers as the first or corresponding author in top international journals such as Chemical Reviews, Physical Review Letters, Advanced Materials, and Energy & Environmental Science, with over 10,000 citations and an H-index of 58 on Google Scholar. He has filed 20 domestic and international invention patents. Currently, he serves as the associate editor for the Journal of the American Ceramic Society and editorial board member for Microstructures, Advanced Powder Materials, Journal of Advanced Ceramics, Materials Today Communications, Crystals, and Journal of Advanced Dielectrics. He is also a member of the Electronic Components Key Materials and Technology Committee of the Chinese Society of Functional Materials.

About Journal of Advanced Ceramics

Journal of Advanced Ceramics (JAC) is an international academic journal that presents the state-of-the-art results of theoretical and experimental studies on the processing, structure, and properties of advanced ceramics and ceramic-based composites. JAC is Fully Open Access, monthly published by Tsinghua University Press, and exclusively available via SciOpen. JAC’s 2023 IF is 18.6, ranking in Top 1 (1/31, Q1) among all journals in “Materials Science, Ceramics” category, and its 2023 CiteScore is 21.0 (top 5%) in Scopus database. ResearchGate homepage: https://www.researchgate.net/journal/Journal-of-Advanced-Ceramics-2227-8508

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