title: Fabrication of bimodal-pore SrTiO3 microspheres with excellent photocatalytic performance for Cr(VI) reduction under simulated sunlight.
abstract: Solving the increasing contamination from toxic heavy metal ions in wastewater is an imperative issue in photocatalysis research area. In this study, three-dimensional (3D) porous SrTiO3 microspheres have been fabricated by a sol-gel-templating method using the agarose gel bead containing SrCO3 granules as the template. The resultant SrTiO3 microspheres, several tens of micrometers in diameter, exhibit a bimodal pore structure, in which the macropore about 70-150nm in size stems from SrCO3 granules and the mesopore about 3nm is formed via removing the agarose fiber embedded in the composite microspheres. The porous framework of SrTiO3 microspheres is assembled by regular single-crystalline SrTiO3 nanocubes with an edge length of 100±10nm. The highly interconnected porous network renders numerous pathways for the rapid mass transport, strong adsorption of reactants and multi-reflection of incident light. Moreover, the as-prepared SrTiO3 microspheres exhibit excellent photocatalytic performance for the Cr(VI) reduction under simulated sunlight, which can reduce nearly 100% Cr(VI) at pH 2 within 2h and retain a relatively high reduction ability after six recycles.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering of Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 30072, China; School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 30072, China.
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering of Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 30072, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China.
authors.forename: Yuanyuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China.
authors.forename: Zhenwei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China.
authors.forename: Yanhu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nan
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China. Electronic address: zhyjiang@tju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zhongyi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jiang
keywords: Cr(VI); Photocatalysis; Porous microspheres; SrTiO(3); Templating