The enhanced gas-sensing and photocatalytic performance of hollow and hollow core–shell SnO2-based nanofibers induced by the Kirkendall effect

Abstract

In order to enhance the properties of SnO2-based nanomaterials, hollow SnO2 nanofibers and core–shell TiO2–SnO2 nanofibers were prepared by using a facile single-needle electrospinning. The Kirkendall Effect during the calcination stage plays a decisive role for the molding of hollow structure, as well as hollow core–shell conformation, which is rarely reported in the complicated two-step protocol. The hollow and hollow core–shell SnO2 nano-objects exhibit excellent properties in gas sensor and photocatalysis, respectively. The hollow SnO2 nanofibers achieve high selectivity toward ethanol (below 100ppm) and ethyl acetate (above 100ppm), mainly because of the tubular cavity, porous structure and the targeted gas property. The TiO2 doped hollow core–shell SnO2 nanofibers failed to improve the gas-sensing performances, but it acquired a high degradation of 79% for methylene blue within 10mins, compared with that of 60% for the hollow SnO2 nanofibers.