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Basic Molten Salt Route to Prepare Porous SrTiO 3 Nanocrystals for Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production
Author(s) -
Liu Hui,
Chen Xianliu,
Yan Shicheng,
Li Zhaosheng,
Zou Zhigang
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
european journal of inorganic chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.667
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1099-0682
pISSN - 1434-1948
DOI - 10.1002/ejic.201402280
Subject(s) - nanocrystal , dissolution , crystallinity , nucleation , chemical engineering , selected area diffraction , photocatalysis , chemistry , molten salt , porosity , solvent , nanotechnology , inorganic chemistry , materials science , transmission electron microscopy , crystallography , catalysis , organic chemistry , engineering
SrTiO 3 nanocrystals with porous structures were synthesized by a basic molten salt method. TEM images confirmed that the SrTiO 3 nanocrystals possess a cellular morphology. High‐resolution TEM and selected‐area electron diffraction (SAED) analysis proved the existence of pores even in single crystals. Time‐dependent observations indicated that the formation of pores in the SrTiO 3 nanocrystals resulted from the phase transformation of the TiO 2 precursor in the basic solvent, and the process follows the dissolution–nucleation–aggregation growth mechanism. More importantly, the porous structure of the SrTiO 3 nanocrystals is retained after the removal of the basic solvent by cool‐water washing, as the cool water can efficiently dissipate the heat of dissolution for the dissolution of the strong base into the water. The as‐prepared porous SrTiO 3 nanocrystal photocatalysts exhibited a high rate of photocatalytic H 2 evolution, which is attributed to their large specific surface area and good crystallinity.