Nanocrystalline Ternary Wide Band Gap p-Block Metal Semiconductor Sr2Sb2O7: Hydrothermal Syntheses and Photocatalytic Benzene Degradation

Nanocrystalline Sr 2 Sb 2 O 7 with small particles and a large BET specific area was prepared successfully via a facile hydrothermal method from Sb 2 O 5 . The obtained sample was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), N 2 -sorption BET surface area, UV−vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The as-prepared Sr 2 Sb 2 O 7 showed high photocatalytic activity for benzene degradation under 254 nm UV irradiations, and no deactivation was observed during the prolonged photocatalytic reaction. The photocatalytic performance of the hydrothermal synthesized Sr 2 Sb 2 O 7 was superior to both P25 and Sr 2 Sb 2 O 7 prepared by the conventional solid-state reaction. A possible mechanism of the photocatalysis over Sr 2 Sb 2 O 7 was also proposed.