Enhanced UV-Visible Light Photocatalytic Activity by Constructing Appropriate Heterostructures between Mesopore TiO(2) Nanospheres and Sn(3)O(4) Nanoparticles

Novel TiO(2)/Sn(3)O(4) heterostructure photocatalysts were ingeniously synthesized via a scalable two-step method. The impressive photocatalytic abilities of the TiO(2)/Sn(3)O(4) sphere nanocomposites were validated by the degradation test of methyl orange and •OH trapping photoluminescence experiments under ultraviolet (UV) and visible light irradiation, respectively. Especially under the visible light, the TiO(2)/Sn(3)O(4) nanocomposites demonstrated a superb photocatalytic activity, with 81.2% of methyl orange (MO) decomposed at 30 min after irradiation, which greatly exceeded that of the P25 (13.4%), TiO(2) (0.5%) and pure Sn(3)O(4) (59.1%) nanostructures. This enhanced photocatalytic performance could be attributed to the mesopore induced by the monodispersed TiO(2) cores that supply sufficient surface areas and accessibility to reactant molecules. This exquisite hetero-architecture facilitates extended UV-visible absorption and efficient photoexcited charge carrier separation.