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Confinement Aided Simultanous Water Cleaning and Energy Harvesting Using Atomically Thin Wurtzite (Wurtzene)
Author(s) -
Kumbhakar Partha,
Mukherjee Madhubanti,
Pramanik Ashim,
Karmakar Srikanta,
Singh Abhishek K.,
Tiwary Chandra S.,
Kumbhakar Pathik
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
advanced sustainable systems
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.499
H-Index - 24
ISSN - 2366-7486
DOI - 10.1002/adsu.202000189
Subject(s) - wurtzite crystal structure , piezoelectricity , materials science , energy harvesting , photocatalysis , nanotechnology , optoelectronics , band gap , open circuit voltage , voltage , composite material , power (physics) , electrical engineering , chemistry , zinc , catalysis , biochemistry , physics , quantum mechanics , metallurgy , engineering
Syntheses of few‐layered piezocatalysts from nonlayered materials have gained a huge attention of attention in recent years due to their potential applicability in efficient removal of toxic elements from water. Here, a simple scalable bottom up approach consisting of wet‐chemical synthesis method is used to produce the atomically thin (2D)‐wurtzite ZnO: “wurtzene.” The presence of a large number of well‐distributed surface defects in the synthesized wurtzene promotes the separation of charge carriers in it via the excellent piezo‐photocatalytic activity and thereby the efficiency of degradation of a test dye (namely methylene blue) is enhanced by ≈5 times. By taking an innovative approach, a piezoelectric driven power cell is also fabricated by using the wurtzene and the highest open circuit voltage is found out to be ≈40 V at 1.0 kPa of applied periodic pressure. The experimental observations are explained with density functional theory calculation. The confinement effect due to reduced dimension plays a crucial role in the wurtzene's excellent piezoelectric response. It is envisioned that the present findings will provided a clear insight into the synthesis of wurtzene with surface defects for highly efficient sunlight driven photocatalytic activity as well as piezoelectric energy harvesting.