Fabrication and photocatalytic activities of SrTiO3 nanofibers by sol–gel assisted electrospinning

Abstract

SrTiO3 nanofibers were successfully prepared by a facile electrospinning method with subsequent calcination in air. These one dimensional nanostructures were characterized for the morphological, structural and optical properties by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The photocatalytic investigations showed that the SrTiO3 nanofibers possessed enhanced photocatalytic efficiency in photodegradation of rhodamine B and photocatalytic H2 evolution from water splitting under ultraviolet light irradiation, compared with the SrTiO3 nanoparticles and P25. The enhanced photocatalytic performance can be ascribed to the beneficial microstructure and more negative conduction band edge compared with P25.