Influence of preparation method and nitrogen (N) doping on properties and photo-catalytic activity of mesoporous SrTiO^sub 3

Nitrogen (N)-doped SrTiO3 /pristine SrTiO3 powders were synthesized by three different methods namely hydrothermal, sol-gel route and solid state reaction respectively. The influence of synthesis route, thermal treatment atmosphere and N doping on the properties and photo-catalytic efficiency of the prepared samples was analyzed. The investigation shows that N doping causes the narrowing of the band gap with about 1 eV. The synergy of the structure, texture and morphology and especially N doping explains high methyl orange (MO) degradation efficiency of 100% within 1 h of irradiation for the N doped SrTiO3 obtained by sol-gel route with the aid of non-ionic triblock copolymer (Pluronic P123) as a structure-directing and thermally treated under nitrogen atmosphere.