Fabrication of Barium Strontium Titanate Nanophotocatalysts with Gridding Structures and Their Photocatalytic Activities

Ba0.7Sr0.3TiO3 (BST) nanocatalysts were prepared by a Sol-Gel method at pH of 2.4 and 4, respectively, both of which were presented as tetragonal phase. TEM images indicated that the BST sample obtained at pH = 2.4 was nanoparticles with an average size of about 100 nm, while that obtained at pH = 4 was gridding structures composed of nanocubes with a mean size of 100 nm. The photocatalytic behavior of BST in the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) was investigated. It was found that the BST catalysts with gridding structures showed much better photocatalytic performance than the BST nanoparticles. This could be attributed to the fact that the photo-generated carriers can migrate easily through the gridding-structured BST sample, which would enhance the photocatalytic activity during the degradation process. It was also found that both BST photocatalysts in this work showed good catalytic stability.