Fabrication and photocatalytic activities of SrTiO₃ nanofibers by sol-gel assisted electrospinning

SrTiO₃ nanofibers were successfully prepared by a facile electrospinning method with subsequent calcination in air. These one dimensional nanostructures were characterized for the morphological, structural and optical properties by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The photocatalytic investigations showed that the SrTiO₃ nanofibers possessed enhanced photocatalytic efficiency in photodegradation of rhodamine B and photocatalytic H₂ evolution from water splitting under ultraviolet light irradiation, compared with the SrTiO₃ nanoparticles and P25. The enhanced photocatalytic performance can be ascribed to the beneficial microstructure and more negative conduction band edge compared with P25.