Synthesis of polymer/rGO/SnO2 hierarchical structure and its photodegradation of organic pollutants

Abstract

Tin dioxide (SnO2) behaves excellent properties, but the high recombination rate of photoexcited electron–hole pairs combined with a large band gap restricts its photocatalytic applications. Comparing with pure SnO2 nanospheres, the photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) over polymer/reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/SnO2 composites was enhanced. For the synthesis, graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets were wrapped on the surface of polymer microspheres to form a polymer/GO core–shell structure. Then, SnO2 nanospheres were decorated on polymer/GO microspheres under a hydrothermal condition, meanwhile GO was reduced to rGO. Therefore, polymer/rGO/SnO2 hierarchical structure was obtained. As graphene promote separation of the photoexcited electron–hole pairs and the conduction band potential of SnO2 is more positive than the work function of graphene, electrons can be quickly transferred to the conduction band of SnO2 via graphene leaving over more holes on the surface of catalyst for the de-ethylation of RhB.