Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Vol.98, No.2, 386-391, 2015
Template-Free Synthesis of Hollow Porous Strontium Titanate Particles
Strontium titanate (SrTiO3) is a potential photocatalyst of H-2 evolution for providing green energy. One of the main strategies for increasing the efficiency of H-2 evolution is to increase the surface area of photocatalysts. In this study, spray pyrolysis was used because of its superior flexibility in morphological control. Three typical reactants, nitric acid, acetic acid, and citric acid, were added to Sr and Ti precursors to form various morphological SrTiO3 powders. The SrTiO3 powders were investigated by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, focused ion beam technique, and the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method to determine the phase composition, surface morphology, geometry, inner structure, and specific surface area, respectively. Four main morphologies of SrTiO3 particles, namely, porous, concave porous, wrinkled spherical, and hollow porous structures, were obtained. Among these powders, SrTiO3 particles prepared with citric acid had the highest surface area (46.9m(2)/g) because of their hollow porous structure. Finally, the formation mechanisms of these four distinct SrTiO3 morphologies are discussed.