Facile Hydrothermal Synthesis of SnO2 Nanospheres as Photocatalysts

Abstract

Large amounts of SnO2 nanospheres are successfully synthesized through a simple and effective hydrothermal method. The as-synthesized products consist of numerous small SnO2 nanocrystals with an average diameter of 40 nm. The as-prepared SnO2 nanospheres are further used as the photocatalysts for photodegrading several organic dyes (methylene blue, methyl orange, Congo red, and rhodamine B) under UV light irradiation. The photocatalytic results show that the as-synthesized SnO2 nanospheres possess high photocatalytic activities. Compared with the degradation rates of other dyes, that of methylene blue reaches 98.5% by 30 min irradiation. It reveals that the as-prepared product might be potential candidate in wastewater purification.