Research progress on ferroelectric catalytic materials for antimicrobials

Research and development of antimicrobial technology are critical for safeguarding human life and health. Ferroelectric materials, materials with spontaneous polarization, can adjust their direction of spontaneous polarization in response to an external electric field. When subjected to this applied field, the ordered arrangement of electric dipoles within the ferroelectric material becomes disrupted. This disruption causes the bound charges on the surface to redistribute, and the released positive and negative charges react with the oxygen and water in the surrounding medium. This reaction forms active substances with powerful oxidant properties (such as OH, \cdot \textO_2^ - ). These highly oxidizing active substances can destroy the cell wall of bacterial cells, enter the cell to damage DNA, leak proteins, and render them inactive, thereby inactivating the bacteria. Ferroelectric materials are not only excellent for their piezoelectric, pyroelectric, and photovoltaic properties but also possess the unique ability to convert mechanical, thermal, and optical energy in nature into electrical and chemical energy. Coupled with their fast response speed (10⁻⁶ s) and high electromechanical coupling coefficients, the development of ferroelectric materials in conjunction with catalytic technology has emerged as a new sterilization technique. However, achieving high antimicrobial efficiencies is closely related to carrier utilization in the catalytic process and the catalyst activity. This holds true regardless of whether mechanical, thermal, or optical energy is used as the driving source to stimulate ferroelectric materials for catalytic antimicrobials. When using ferroelectric materials as catalysts, the spontaneous polarization properties of these materials can be harnessed to reduce the electron–hole pair combination rate through the internal electric field. This action increases the yield of active substances, thereby improving the efficiency of catalytic antibacterial agents. In addition, high-performance ferroelectric materials have a high internal electric field potential after polarization treatment, which can accelerate carrier separation during the catalytic process. As a result, ferroelectric materials have great potential for catalytic antimicrobial applications under environmentally friendly and safe conditions. In this review, we begin with an introduction to the ferroelectric properties of these materials and their relationship with piezoelectric and pyroelectric materials. We then summarize and organize previous work reported on the catalytic antimicrobial properties of ferroelectric materials. This summary includes discussions on photocatalytic, piezocatalytic, and pyrocatalytic antimicrobial properties and descriptions of the antimicrobial mechanisms of ferroelectric materials in different types of catalytic processes. The aim is to provide a reference for future research into the catalytic antimicrobial properties of ferroelectric materials.