Issue 18, 2019

ZnO decorated Sn3O4 nanosheet nano-heterostructure: a stable photocatalyst for water splitting and dye degradation under natural sunlight

Abstract

Herein, a facile hydrothermally-assisted sonochemical approach for the synthesis of a ZnO decorated Sn3O4 nano-heterostructure is reported. The phase purity of the nano-heterostructure was confirmed by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. The morphological analysis demonstrated a nanosheet-like structure of Sn3O4 with a thickness of 20 nm, decorated with ZnO. The optical band gap was found to be 2.60 eV for the ZnO@Sn3O4 nano-heterostructure. Photoluminescence studies revealed the suppression of electron–hole recombination in the ZnO@Sn3O4 nano-heterostructure. The potential efficiency of ZnO@Sn3O4 was further evaluated towards photocatalytic hydrogen production via H2O splitting and degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye. Interestingly, it showed significantly superior photocatalytic activity compared to ZnO and Sn3O4. The complete degradation of MB dye solution was achieved within 40 min. The nano-heterostructure also exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity towards hydrogen evolution (98.2 μmol h−1/0.1 g) via water splitting under natural sunlight. The superior photocatalytic activity of ZnO@Sn3O4 was attributed to vacancy defects created due to its nano-heterostructure.

Graphical abstract: ZnO decorated Sn3O4 nanosheet nano-heterostructure: a stable photocatalyst for water splitting and dye degradation under natural sunlight

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 jan 2019
Accepted
17 mar 2019
First published
02 apr 2019
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Adv., 2019,9, 10289-10296

ZnO decorated Sn3O4 nanosheet nano-heterostructure: a stable photocatalyst for water splitting and dye degradation under natural sunlight

S. D. Balgude, Y. A. Sethi, B. B. Kale, D. P. Amalnerkar and Parag V. Adhyapak, RSC Adv., 2019, 9, 10289 DOI: 10.1039/C9RA00788A

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