Spatially selective photochemical activity on surfaces of ferroelastics with local polarization

摘要

Spatially selective surface photochemical reactivity provides charge and half-reaction separation on a surface of a single material, which generally leads to improved photocatalytic performance, including for water-splitting. In this article, we review observations wherein spatially selective reactivity has been observed on the surfaces of two types of ferroic materials: non-centrosymmetric ferroelectrics and, more recently, centrosymmetric ferroelastics. We further propose that there is an interesting connection between these materials. Some ferroelectrics can be described as ferroelastics with aligned dipoles: they are ferroelectric ferroelastics. Centrosymmetric ferroelastics known to exhibit domain selective reactivity can be described as ferroelastics with anti-parallel aligned dipoles: they are anti-ferroelectric ferroelastics. We discuss potential mechanisms for spatially selective reactivity in such anti-ferroelectric ferroelastics. Finally, we identify additional anti-ferroelectric ferroelastics of interest for spatially selective reactivity.