•  
  •  
 

Applied Environmental Research

Publication Date

2026

Abstract

Chromium (Cr)-doped strontium titanate (SrTiO3, STO) photocatalysts with compositions of SrTi1-xCrxO3 (x = 0, 5, and 10%) were prepared via the coprecipitation method. This study aimed to investigate the effects of Cr doping on structural, morphological, and optical properties. Furthermore, this work aimed to examine the photocatalytic performance of pure and Cr-doped STO against methylene blue (MB) degradation under ultraviolet (UV) and sunlight exposure. X-ray diffraction confirmed the formation of the cubic STO phase and the insertion of the Cr dopant in the STO structures. Furthermore, Cr doping reduced the lattice constant, crystallite size, and average particle size and narrowed the band gap from 3.2 (STO) to 2.9 eV (STO:Cr10%). Photocatalytic evaluation via methylene blue degradation revealed contrasting behaviors under different irradiation sources. Under UV irradiation, STO:Cr10% exhibited the highest degradation efficiency (57.23%), whereas under natural sunlight, pure STO showed superior activity (97.15%) compared with Cr-doped samples. These findings indicate that while Cr doping enhances UV-driven photocatalytic activity by modifying the structure and morphology characteristics and narrowing the band gap, pure STO performs more efficiently under sunlight irradiation, possibly because of the absence of dopant-induced recombination centers.

DOI

10.35762/AER.2026009

First Page

-

Last Page

-

Download

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.