Fabrication of three-dimensional porous La-doped SrTiO3 microspheres with enhanced visible light catalytic activity for Cr(VI) reduction

• DOI: 10.1007/s11705-018-1700-4
• Publication Date: 2018-03-23T11:04:36Z
• Authors: Dong Yang; Xiaoyan Zou; Yuanyuan Sun; Zhenwei Tong; Zhongyi Jiang
• Keywords: Visible spectrum; Absorption edge; Specific surface area

In recent years, much effort has been focused on the development of the photocatalysts with high performance under visible light irradiation. In this paper, three-dimensional porous La-doped SrTiO3 (LST) microspheres were prepared by a modified sol–gel method, in which the agarose gel/SrCO3 microsphere and La2O3 were employed as the template and the La resource, respectively. The as-prepared LST microspheres exhibit a porous structure with a diameter of about 10 μm and a surface pore size of about 100 nm. The La element was doped into the crystal lattice of SrTiO3 by the substitution of La3+ for Sr2+. Therefore, the absorption edge of LST samples shifts toward the visible light region, and their photocatalytic activity for the Cr(VI) reduction is enhanced under visible light. Among all LST samples, LST-0.5 (the La3+ doping content is 0.5 wt-%) exhibited the highest visible-light photocatalytic activity, which can reduce 84% Cr(VI) within 100 min. This LST materials may become a promising photocatalyst for the facile treatment of wastewater containing poisonous heavy metal ions.