Facile one-pot synthesis of heterostructure SnO 2 /ZnO photocatalyst for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of organic dye.

In this work, heterostructure SnO 2 /ZnO nanocomposite photocatalyst was prepared by a straightforward one step polyol method. The resulting photocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen adsorption-desorption analyses, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS). The results showed that the synthesized SnO 2 /ZnO nanocomposites possessed mesoporous wurtzite ZnO and cassiterite SnO 2 nanocrystallites. The photocatalytic activity of the prepared SnO 2 /ZnO photocatalyst was investigated by the degradation of methylene blue dye under UV light irradiation. The heterostructure SnO 2 /ZnO photocatalyst showed much higher photocatalytic activities for the degradation of methylene blue dye than individual SnO 2 , ZnO nanomaterials and reference commercial TiO 2 P25. This higher photocatalytic degradation activity was due to enhanced charge separation and subsequently the suppression of charge recombination in the SnO 2 /ZnO photocatalyst resulting from band offsets between SnO 2 and ZnO. Finally, these heterostructure SnO 2 /ZnO nanocatalysts were stable and could be recycled several times without any appreciable change in degradation rate constant which opens new avenues toward potential industrial applications.