In the field of environmental remediation and sustainability, the built-in electric field of ferroelectrics has been regarded as a promising strategy to enhance photocatalytic (PC) dye degradation and photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. Here, we report on Ce-doped BaTiO 3 (BT) nanoassemblies prepared by a hydrothermal route. X-ray diffraction reveals the phase transformation from tetragonal to cubic on the sintering temperature and Ce doping. From X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), the oxygen vacancies are found to be maximum for 4 mol % of Ce concentration. The ferroelectric and piezoelectric measurements disclose a higher remnant polarization (1.76 μC cm −2 ) and d 33 coefficient (15 pCN −1 ) at 4 mol % due to the built-in electric field. Thus, we observed a significantly improved PC dye degradation with the rate constant (k) of 0.0139 m −1 (methylene blue), 0.0147 m −1 (methyl violet) at 4 mol %, and 0.0117 m −1 (congo red) at 6 mol %. PEC water splitting showed that the photoanode fabricated at 4 mol % of Ce exhibits enriched photocurrent density (1.45 mA cm −2 ), impressive early onset of water oxidation (−0.504 V), and hydrogen gas evolution (22.50 μmol h −1 cm −2 ). Poling studies display a significant enhancement in both PC and PEC properties indicating the built-in electric field assisted activities of Ce-doped BT nanoassemblies. The underlying mechanisms behind the degradation efficiency and improved photocurrent density are established via the built-in electric field facilitating charge carrier detachment and transport as evidenced by the photoluminescence decay and XPS valence band spectra.

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Tris (thiourea) zinc sulphate (ZTS), a semiorganic nonlinear optical (NLO) material has been synthesized at 30°C. The solubility was determined in different solvents such as water, ethanol and water mixture of ethanol (1:1). Good quality single crystals with size 10 x 8 x 6 mm 3 were grown by slow evaporation technique within three weeks with approximate growth rate of 0.5 mm/day. The grown crystals have been subjected to single crystal X-ray diffraction to determine the unit cell dimensions and morphology. The TGA and DTA reveal that the material has good thermal stability. The UV-Vis spectrum shows that the material has wide optical transparency in the entire visible region. The second harmonic generation was confirmed by Kurtz powder method. The birefringence of the crystal was measured in the visible region and it was found to vary with the wavelength. The microhardness test was carried out in (100) plane and the load dependent hardness was measured.

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