Dealloying synthesis of SnO_2-TiO_2 solid solution and composite nanoparticles with excellent photocatalytic activity

摘要

A novel rutile TiO2/Sn0.42Ti0.58O2 composite photocatalyst was first synthesized by dealloying method using Cu60Ti30Sn10 amorphous ribbons as precursors. The prepared sample was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and photoluminescence techniques (PL). The results of XRD, SEM and TEM and XPS show that the rutile TiO2/Sn0.42Ti0.58O2 has been successfully synthesized and the sample is composed of large quantities of fine nanoparticles with sizes of 15-60 nm, which have been assembled into a much larger structure with novel football-like surface. While PL and DRS results show that rutile TiO2/Sn0.42Ti0.58O2 has a lower PL intensity compared with pure rutile TiO2 and Sn0.42Ti0.58O2 and an intermediate value of band gap energy (3.01 eV) between those of the rutile TiO2 (2.97 eV) and Sn0.42Ti(0).O-58(2) (3.04 eV). Moreover, the photocatalytic activities of the samples were evaluated by decomposing rhodamine B (RhB) dye (10 mg/L) under the ultraviolet (UV) light irradiation. The results show that the photocatalytic performance of rutile TiO2/Sn0.42Ti0.58O2 is much higher than those of pure rutile TiO2 and Sn0.42Ti0.58O2.