Reduced Graphene Oxide / Strontium Titanate—Investigation of Improved Photoactivity

Strontium titanate is a ternary n-type semiconductor that has recently been identified as a promising material for many photocatalytic applications such as degradation of organic pollutants or oxygen evolution reaction, especially because of high durability. However, SrTiO3 has not demonstrated high photoactivity and therefore many approaches have been studied towards improving its photo-efficiency. One of them is combining it with graphene oxide, which demonstrated huge improvement in overall photocatalytic activity, and the reasons of this effect have not yet been fully identified. In this work, we characterize SrTiO3/ graphene oxide photomaterials synthesized by a straightforward hydrothermal procedure and for the first time report many of the quintessential material features that are relevant to improved photocatalytic activity towards photocatalytic degradation of toluene. Our results provide important insights into the efficiency of charge separation, carrier transport, and photostability.