title: Self-Template Synthesis of Porous Perovskite Titanate Solid and Hollow Submicrospheres for Photocatalytic Oxygen Evolution and Mesoscopic Solar Cells.
abstract: We describe a general synthesis strategy, which combines sol-gel and hydrothermal processes, for the large-scale synthesis of porous perovskite titanates spheres with tunable particle size and inner structures. Amorphous hydrous TiO2 solid spheres (AHTSS) are first synthesized by a sol-gel method and are then used as precursor and template for the subsequent hydrothermal reaction with alkaline earth metal ions in an alkaline medium. This strategy can be generalized to synthesize porous spheres of various perovskite titanates (i.e., SrTiO3, BaTiO3, and CaTiO3) consisting of single-crystalline nanocubes. By controlling the textural properties (i.e., size, porosity, and structure) of AHTSS, perovskite titanates with tunable size and inner structures are selectively synthesized. The underlying formation mechanism is manifested by XRD and TEM to involve in situ crystallization or Ostwald ripening during the hydrothermal process. The obtained porous SrTiO3 spheres present superior performance in photocatalytic oxygen evolution and CdSe-sensitized mesoscopic solar cells.
authors.affiliation: †Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, NUSNNI-NanoCore, National University of Singapore, 5 Engineering Drive 2, 117576 Singapore.
authors.forename: Jia Hong
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: †Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, NUSNNI-NanoCore, National University of Singapore, 5 Engineering Drive 2, 117576 Singapore.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: ‡Institut für Technische Chemie, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover, Callinstraβe 3, D-30167 Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Irina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ivanova
authors.affiliation: §Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, 3 Science Drive 3, 117543 Singapore.
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: †Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, NUSNNI-NanoCore, National University of Singapore, 5 Engineering Drive 2, 117576 Singapore.
authors.forename: Xingzhu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: †Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, NUSNNI-NanoCore, National University of Singapore, 5 Engineering Drive 2, 117576 Singapore.
authors.forename: Wee Chong
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: §Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, 3 Science Drive 3, 117543 Singapore.
authors.forename: Qing-Hua
authors.initials: QH
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: ‡Institut für Technische Chemie, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover, Callinstraβe 3, D-30167 Hannover, Germany.|∥Laboratory "Photoactive Nanocomposite Materials", Saint Petersburg State University, Ulyanovskaya Street 1, Peterhof, Saint Petersburg 198504, Russia.
authors.forename: Detlef W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Bahnemann
authors.affiliation: †Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, NUSNNI-NanoCore, National University of Singapore, 5 Engineering Drive 2, 117576 Singapore.
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: TiO2; hollow spheres; perovskite titanate; photocatalysis; quantum dot sensitized solar cells