Doping of ferrites is an important domain of research for their application as photocatalysts. In the present work, the effect of Ti
4+ substitution on the structural and photocatalytic properties of strontium ferrite nanoparticles (NPs) is studied. Ternary doped Sr
1−xTi
xFe
2O
4+δ ferrite NPs (x = 0.0–1.0) were synthesized by sol–gel methodology. Tetravalent Ti
4+ ions caused oxygen hyperstoichiometry and enhancement in the surface area from 44.3 m
2/g for SrFe
2O
4 NPs to 77.6 m
2/g for Sr
0.4Ti
0.6Fe
2O
4+δ NPs. The average diameter of NPs ranged between 25–35 nm as revealed by TEM analysis. The presence of two sextets in the Mössbauer spectrum of pristine SrFe
2O
4 and Ti
4+-substituted ferrite NPs and a paramagnetic doublet in the TiFe
2O
5 confirmed their phase purity. The photocatalytic potential of pure and Ti
4+-substituted ferrite NPs was studied using nitroaromatic compounds, viz. pendimethalin,
p-nitrophenol and Martius yellow, as model pollutants. Doped ferrite NPs with a composition of Sr
0.4Ti
0.6Fe
2O
4+δ NPs showed the highest degradation efficiency ranging from 87.2% to 94.4%. The increased photocatalytic potential was ascribed to the lowering of band gap (E
g) from 2.45 eV to 2.18 eV, a fourfold decrease in photoluminescence intensity, increased charge carrier concentration (4.90 × 10
15 cm
−3 to 6.96 × 10
15 cm
−3), and decreased barrier height from 1.20 to 1.02 eV. O
2●− radicals appeared to be the main reactive oxygen species involved in photodegradation. The apparent rate constant values using the Langmuir–Hinshelwood kinetic model were 1.9 × 10
−2 min
−1, 2.3 × 10
−2 min
−1 and 1.3 × 10
−2 min
−1 for
p-nitrophenol, pendimethalin and Martius yellow, respectively. Thus, tuning the Ti
4+ content in strontium ferrite NPs proved to be an effective strategy in improving their photocatalytic potential for the degradation of nitroaromatic pollutants.
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