Three-dimensional hierarchical aggregation growth of perovskite ferroelectric microplates with a high-efficient methylene blue adsorption performance

Abstract

Square-shape and single-crystal-like perovskite PbTiO3 (PT) microplates have been prepared via a facile one-step hydrothermal route by employing ethanol as surfactant. The as-synthesized PT microplates were characterized to exhibit a side length of 4–6µm and a height of ~ 150–200nm. It is interesting to find that the PT microplates were formed via a complex three-dimensional aggregation and oriented attachment process, where small sized precursor-transformed-PT nanoplates were determined to be the building blocks. Such process was proposed to arise from a long-distance electric dipole interaction and short-distance molecular interaction, giving rise to the square-shape and single-crystal-like microplates with large-scale polar {001} exposed. Moreover, these microplates demonstrate a remarkable adsorption performance of methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solution, despite of a low specific area (~ 3.48m2/g). It was revealed that the high-efficient adsorption could be attributed to an electrostatic interaction between MB and polar {001} of the microplates, offering a promising approach to selectively treating pollutant solution with organic molecules.