Stable UiO-66/BaTiO3 Heterostructure for Efficient Solar-Light Ciprofloxacin Degradation and Energy Harvesting Applications

Abstract

The fabrication of robust metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) continues to be difficult in materials science studies. In order to overcome such an obstacle, the design of hybrid framework materials could be an effective solution. Herein, we successfully synthesized UiO-66/BaTiO3 hybrids with different percentages of BaTiO3 mass (10%-50%), which are intended to improve the photocatalytic activity. Considering the widespread pollution of water resources with ciprofloxacin (CIP), leading to the emergence of antibiotic resistance, urgent treatment measures are needed. The optimized U/BTO-25 hybrid showed remarkable photocatalytic activity, with CIP removal reaching 98.37% in 30 min. Such excellent catalytic behavior is due to the complementary nature of both components, where the large specific surface area of UiO-66 helps with the adsorption of CIP, while ferroelectric polarization of BaTiO3 leads to charge separation. In particular, the radical trapping experiments center dot O2 - and h+ to be the dominant radicals. The hybrid showed excellent stability in four successive cycles with a slight decline in efficiency. In addition, the hybrid has significant prospects for use in triboelectric nanogenerators. The output of the nanogenerator was 73 V and 180 nA, respectively, and the output can be harvested in a capacitor to power off-the-shelf electronic devices, demonstrating the potential of MOF-ferroelectric hybrid materials.