Engineering non-centrosymmetry and enhanced polarization in BiVO4 for efficient pyroelectric degradation of mining wastewater

Maple leaf templating engineered non-centrosymmetric BiVO 4 with enhanced polarization. • DFT and ELF revealed lattice distortion induces electron redistribution strengthening internal fields. • ML-BiVO 4 generated 1.26-fold higher pyroelectric potential than BiVO 4 . • Catalyst achieved 100% xanthate removal within 60 min for wastewater treatment. The efficient removal of toxic and refractory xanthate from mineral processing wastewater poses a significant environmental challenge. Pyroelectric catalysis is a promising solution that utilizes temperature fluctuations, yet its efficiency is limited by weak intrinsic polarization. To overcome this limitation, this study presents a novel strategy for engineering BiVO 4 with a highly non-centrosymmetric structure by using a maple leaf as a bio-template to spatially confine the growth of a bismuth-based precursor. Electron Localization Function (ELF) analysis elucidates that the bio-template induces lattice distortion, triggering significant electron redistribution and dipole polarization. DFT theoretical calculations and second harmonic generation (SHG) prove that the enhanced asymmetry of the maple leaf template BiVO 4 (ML-BiVO 4 ) crystal, resulting in a significant improvement in dipole moment and macroscopic polarization capability. COMSOL Multiphysics simulations reveal that the ML-BiVO 4 generates significantly higher pyroelectric potentials than conventional BiVO 4 , validating the computational strengthening of the internal electric field. The xanthate removal rate of the ML-BiVO 4 catalyst exceeded 99% within 60 min, which is 1.45 times that of the traditional BiVO 4 catalyst. This work not only demonstrates the immense potential of ML-BiVO 4 as a high-performance catalyst for the sustainable treatment of mining wastewater but also provides a general bio-templating pathway for designing advanced pyroelectric materials by manipulating crystallographic symmetry. Schematic diagram of pyroelectricity catalytic degradation of xanthate. Download: Download high-res image (96KB) Download: Download full-size image