High photocatalytic activity of V-doped SrTiO(3) porous nanofibers produced from a combined electrospinning and thermal diffusion process

In this letter, we report a novel V-doped SrTiO(3) photocatalyst synthesized via electrospinning followed by a thermal diffusion process at low temperature. The morphological and crystalline structural investigations reveal not only that the V-doped SrTiO(3) photocatalyst possesses a uniform, porous, fibrous structure, but also that some V(5+) ions are introduced into the SrTiO(3) lattice. The photocatalytic capability of V-doped SrTiO(3) porous nanofibers was evaluated through photodegrading methyl orange (MO) in aqueous solution under artificial UV–vis light. The results indicated that V-doped SrTiO(3) porous nanofibers have excellent catalytic efficiency. Furthermore, the excellent catalytic activity was maintained even after five cycle tests, indicating that they have outstanding photocatalytic endurance. It is suggested that the excellent photocatalytic performance of doped SrTiO(3) nanofibers is possibly attributed to the V(5+) ion doping increasing the light utilization as well as to the outstanding porous features, the excellent component and structure stability.