Noble metal modified TiO2 microspheres: Surface properties and photocatalytic activity under UV–vis and visible light

TiO2/SrTiO3 and SrTiO3 microspheres decorated with Rh, Ru or Pt nanoparticles: Highly UV–vis responsible photoactivity and mechanism

“…According to Fig. S1A, it could be observed that the TiO 2 /SrTiO 3 composite had no change in peak positions and shapes compared with the bare TiO 2 microspheres indicating from our previous study, so the presence of SrTiO 3 did not impact on the lattice structure of TiO 2 [17]. The XRD pattern of bare TiO 2 /SrTiO 3 microspheres shown in Fig.…”

“…Based on our previously study the SEM images of the pristine TiO 2 microsphere precursor showed that the surface of the microspheres was fairly smooth, indicating that they are composed of ultrafine particles [17]. After alkali hydrothermal treatment with SrCl 2 the TiO 2 microspheres were converted firstly to TiO 2 /SrTiO 3 and secondly to SrTiO 3 microspheres as shown in Fig.…”

“…In the first step TiO 2 microspheres were obtained according to the procedure described by Zheng et al and in our previous study [17,25]. Ti(OBu) 4 (5.1 g) was mixed with absolute ethanol (75 ml) under vigorous stirring.…”

“…The photoactivity of the obtained samples was estimated by measuring the rate of phenol decomposition in an aqueous solution in the presence of visible and UV-vis irradiation described in our previous study [17,18,26]. The detailed characterization procedures can be seen in the Supplementary material.…”

“…One of the approaches to improve photoactivity is surface modification with monometallic nanoparticles due to acceleration of photoexited electron transfer to the substrate, and ability of visible light absorption either by metal complexes bounded to the semiconductor or by photoexcitation of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of nanoparticles (NPs) of noble metals attached to the semiconductor [14][15][16][17][18]. Rhodium (Rh) and ruthenium (Ru) photocatalysts, where base material was doped or modified with a small amount of a Rh or Ru species without changing the original crystal structure, have been used to develop visible-light-active TiO 2 or SrTiO 3 [19][20][21][22].…”