Strontium titanate (SrTiO₃) has perovskite structure (ABO₃) and is a promising candidate for silicon replacement. Its low manufacturing cost, low toxicity, high thermal and chemical stability and the location of its bandgap (3.2 eV) makes it an ideal material for applications in photocatalysis. Suitably doped is used in the photocatalytic degradation of pollutants, water reduction to obtain H₂, data storage devices, and as a contamination (S and C) resistant anode in solid oxide fuel cells.

The most important drawback for using SrTiO₃ in photocatalysis is that its bandgap limits its use to the UV region of the solar spectrum, which is only a small portion of the solar energy that reaches the earth's surface (4% UV radiation, 43% visible light).

Despite this limitation, it is important to study the experimental conditions for its synthesis, since an incomplete synthesis or unwanted secondary phases may degrade the photoactivity.

In this work, we report our results for the synthesis of pure SrTiO₃ by solid state methods in combination with ball-milling. Syntheses conditions, such as soaking time and peak temperature, excess concentration of Sr and/or Ti, time, speed and milling cycles were thoroughly investigated. We found a wide variables-space that allow its synthesis.

In the future, we will continue this work by incorporating dopants into the SrTiO₃ structure to extend its photoresponse to the visible light region.

The SrTiO₃ mechanism of formation was analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive microprobe (EDX).