Ferroelectric materials and their applications in green catalysis

TL;DR

This review explores how ferroelectric materials enhance green catalysis through polarization effects, interface band bending, and selective reactant adsorption, highlighting recent advances and future research directions.

Contribution

It summarizes recent developments in ferroelectric materials and their catalytic applications, emphasizing the role of polarization in improving catalytic performance.

Findings

Polarization induces band bending at interfaces, enhancing charge separation.

Ferroelectric surfaces enable selective adsorption of reactants.

Potential of 2D ferroelectric materials in chemical catalysis is discussed.

Abstract

The demand for renewable and environmentally friendly energy source has attracted extensive research on high performance catalysts. Ferroelectrics which are a class of materials with a switchable polarization are the unique and promising catalyst candidates due to the significant effects of polarization on surfaces physical and chemical properties. The band bending at the ferroelectric/semiconductor interface induced by the polarization flip promotes the charge separation and transfer, there by enhancing the photocatalytic performance. More importantly, the reactants can be selectively adsorbed on the surface of the ferroelectric materials depending on the polarization direction, which can effectively lift the basic limitations as imposed by Sabatier principle on catalytic activity. This review summarizes the latest developments of ferroelectric materials, and introduces the ferroelectric-related catalytic application. The possible research directions of 2D ferroelectric materials in chemical catalysis is discussed at the end. The review is expected to inspire the extensive research interests from physical, chemical and material science communities.