Enhancing the Sonolysis Efficiency of SrTiO3 Particles with Cr-Doping

Abstract

Sonolysis could be more practical for water treatment than traditional catalytic methods in some specific situations. However, the practical application is limited by the low degradation rate. In this work, the Cr doped SrTiO3 was prepared by hydrothermal method, and the Cr-doping results in the decreased crystal symmetry, which leads to the rough surface and a large number of pores of the sample. The appearance of a large number of holes increases the specific surface area and enhances the gas adsorption performance of the sample, which can promote the cavitation. The optimized Cr-doped SrTiO3 can degrade 95.4% rhodamine B (5 mg/L) in 10 min under ultrasound irradiation (53 kHz, 350 W). Furthermore, the improvement of sonolysis degradation with the Cr doped SrTiO3 is universal for dyes, such as methyl blue (MB), methyl orange (MO) and rhodamine B (RhB). The role of active species in ultrasonic catalysis and the synergistic mechanism of ultrasound and catalyst were systematically studied by adding sacrificial agents and changing the reaction atmosphere. This work indicates that the incorporation of finely modified inorganic particles is effective for efficient water treatment.