Low temperature hydrothermal synthesis of SrTiO3 nanoparticles without alkali and their effective photocatalytic activity

Abstract SrTiO3 nanoparticle (NP) photocatalyst was synthesized with a facile and environmentalfriendly hydrothermal method using tetrabutyltitanate, strontium oxide, and ethanolamine as precursors at low temperature without alkali as mineralizer for the first time. The SrTiO3 nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and N2 Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method. The SrTiO3 catalyst synthesized at 120 °C (STO-120) exhibited the highest photocurrent intensity among the samples synthesized at different hydrothermal temperatures. The high photocatalytic performance of STO-120 was mainly attributed to the more homogeneous and minimum nanoparticle size, the highest surface area, and the maximum light absorption property among the four different samples. This work presented an applicable and facile method to fabricate a highly active and stable SrTiO3 photocatalyst for organic pollutant degradation.