Abstract
The highly reactive nature of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is the basis for widespread use in environmental and health-related fields. Conventionally, there are only two kinds of catalysts used for ROS generation: photocatalysts and piezocatalysts. However, their usage has been limited due to various environmental and physical factors. To address this problem, herein, we report thermoelectric materials, such as Bi2Te3, Sb2Te3, and PbTe, as thermocatalysts which can produce hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) under a small surrounding temperature difference. Being the most prevalent environmental factors in daily life, temperature and related thermal effects have tremendous potential for practical applications. To increase the practicality in everyday life, bismuth telluride nanoplates (Bi2Te3 NPs), serving as an efficient thermocatalyst, are coated on a carbon fiber fabric (Bi2Te3@CFF) to develop a thermocatalytic filter with antibacterial function. Temperature difference induced H2O2 generation by thermocatalysts results in the oxidative damage of bacteria, which makes thermocatalysts highly promising for disinfection applications. Antibacterial activity as high as 95% is achieved only by the treatment of low-temperature difference cycles. The current work highlights the horizon-shifting impacts of thermoelectric materials for real-time purification and antibacterial applications.
Highlights
The highly reactive nature of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is the basis for widespread use in environmental and health-related fields
The thermocatalytic property can be exclusively observed in thermoelectric materials, which are capable of producing electron-hole separation under an applied temperature difference
Bi2Te3 NPs were synthesized by a simple wet chemical route and deployed under a positive or negative temperature difference to realize surface electrochemical reaction-mediated ROS generation
Summary
The highly reactive nature of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is the basis for widespread use in environmental and health-related fields. There are only two kinds of catalysts used for ROS generation: photocatalysts and piezocatalysts Their usage has been limited due to various environmental and physical factors. To address this problem, we report thermoelectric materials, such as Bi2Te3, Sb2Te3, and PbTe, as thermocatalysts which can produce hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) under a small surrounding temperature difference. Temperature difference-induced charge separation in thermocatalysts is beneficial for prohibiting electron-hole recombination, which further ensures higher ROS generation. We demonstrate H2O2 generation and the consequent antibacterial activity of selected thermoelectric materials such as Bi2Te3, Sb2Te3, and PbTe. Since the early 1800s, H2O2 has been used as a disinfectant owing to its high oxidative and biocidal efficiency[34]. The concepts and results presented in this paper strongly highlight the bright prospects of thermocatalysts for H2O2 generation and environmental disinfection applications
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