Strontium titanate with inverse opal structure as the photocatalysts

The microstructure of the catalyst material is one of the most important factors affecting the photocatalytic performance. In this study, inverse opal structure strontium titanate (SrTiO3, STO) materials with different pore sizes (from 75 to 123 nm) were prepared, and employed as photocatalysts in the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) dye. The results suggest that the highest photodegradation rate of the inverse opal structure photocatalyst reaches to 88.03%, which is greater than that of the non-inverse opal structure (50.42%) due to its complex three-dimensional porous microstructure. The effect of the pore size of the inverse opal structure STO on the photocatalytic properties was investigated. As the pore size of the inverse opal microstructure decreases, the photocatalytic degradation rate increases regularly, attributing to effective capture of light with decreasing of pore size. The photocatalytic degradation mechanism of inverse opal structure with different pore sizes is discussed in this work.