Synthesis of a flower-like SnO/ZnO nanostructure with high catalytic activity and stability under natural sunlight

Abstract

To improve the catalytic activity of a ZnO nanostructure in natural sunlight, SnO was used to sensitize the ZnO nanostructure, and a stable flower-like stannous oxide/ZnO (SnO/ZnO) nanostructure was successfully synthesized by an in situ growth strategy using stannum metal as the raw material. With no stirring, the resultant SnO/ZnO nanostructure exhibited quite high catalytic activity and catalytic stability under natural sunlight irradiation, in which the photocatalytic efficiency of the pure ZnO nanostructure after introducing SnO was improved over 9.2 times compared to that without SnO. Moreover, the introduction of SnO can endow ZnO with a photodegradation ability in darkness. The enhanced photocatalytic performance is mainly ascribed to a positive synergistic effect between ZnO and SnO, which can prevent photogenerated electrons and holes from recombining and improve the absorption efficiency of natural sunlight. This work contributes to the design of other visible-light-derived photocatalysts for application in environmental purification of organic pollutants.