To achieve high- ε r , low-tg σ polymer composites , a multistep grafting route was designed to coat BaTiO 3 (BT) nanoparticles with polymer PATP and then composite them with epoxy resin. FTIR and TGA were used to evaluate the chemical grafting of BT nanoparticles. TEM and SEM were utilized to characterize the morphology and microstructure of samples. The effects of surface modification and filler fraction on dielectric properties were investigated. The results show BT nanoparticles were successfully encapsulated with a PATP shell of 5–10 nm, which not only improves the dispersion of BT nanoparticles in epoxy resin, but also suppresses the dielectric loss of composites. The obtained composites have high dielectric constant and very low dielectric loss, which can be tailored by surface modification of nano-BT and varying the filler fraction.
Two electrocatalysts Pt and RuO2 were directionally co-loaded on the nano-piezomaterial t-BaTiO3 by a two-step process: the alkali deposition–oxidation of RuO2 followed by the selective photo-reduction deposition of Pt. It was found that both Pt and RuO2 could considerably improve the piezo-degradation efficiency of t-BaTiO3 for pollutants. For the biorefractory pesticide tricyclazole, RuO2/t-BaTiO3/Pt possessed a piezo-degradation kinetic constant of 0.032 min−1. The rate constant was 3.11, 2.56 and 2.58 times that of t-BaTiO3, Pt/t-BaTiO3 and RuO2/t-BaTiO3, respectively. Moreover, the rate constant of RuO2/t-BaTiO3/Pt was greater than the sum (0.025 min−1) of the rate constants of two single-loaded materials, Pt/t-BaTiO3 and RuO2/t-BaTiO3. This indicates that co-loaded Pt and RuO2 in RuO2/t-BaTiO3/Pt have a synergistic enhancement effect on the piezo-degradation. By analyzing the kind and amount of the reactive oxygen species (˙OH, 1O2, ˙O2− and H2O2) from these nano-piezocatalytic systems, it was inferred that Pt acted as a cathodic- and anodic-like catalyst while RuO2 acted as an anodic-like catalyst. The mechanism of the synergistic catalysis for co-loaded Pt and RuO2 was similar to the principle of an electrolytic reactor, in which Pt and RuO2 were its two catalytic nano-electrodes and the power was from the piezo-potential of t-BaTiO3.