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Hierarchical assembly of ultrathin hexagonal SnS2 nanosheets onto electrospun TiO2 nanofibers: enhanced photocatalytic activity based on photoinduced interfacial charge transfer

Authors :
Yichun Liu
Mingyi Zhang
Changlu Shao
Jingbo Mu
Xinghua Li
Zhenyi Zhang
Zengcai Guo
Yangyang Sun
Peng Zhang
Source :
Nanoscale. 5(2)
Publication Year :
2012

Abstract

Well-designed hierarchical nanostructures with one dimensional (1D) TiO(2) nanofibers (120-350 nm in diameter and several micrometers in length) and ultrathin hexagonal SnS(2) nanosheets (40-70 nm in lateral size and 4-8 nm in thickness) were successfully synthesized by combining the electrospinning technique (for TiO(2) nanofibers) and a hydrothermal growth method (for SnS(2) nanosheets). The single-crystalline SnS(2) nanosheets with a 2D layered structure were uniformly grown onto the electrospun TiO(2) nanofibers consisted of either anatase (A) phase or anatase-rutile (AR) mixed phase TiO(2) nanoparticles. The definite heterojunction interface between SnS(2) nanosheets and TiO(2) (A or R) nanoparticles were investigated by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Moreover, the as-prepared SnS(2)/TiO(2) hierarchical nanostructures as nanoheterojunction photocatalysts exhibited excellent UV and visible light photocatalytic activities for the degradation of organic dyes (rhodamine B and methyl orange) and phenols (4-nitrophenol), remarkably superior to the TiO(2) nanofibers and the SnS(2) nanosheets, mainly owing to the photoinduced interfacial charge transfer based on the photosynergistic effect of the SnS(2)/TiO(2) heterojunction. Significantly, the SnS(2)/TiO(2) (AR) hierarchical nanostructures as the tricomponent heterojunction system possessed stronger photocatalytic activity than the bicomponent heterojunction system of SnS(2)/TiO(2) (A) hierarchical nanostructures or TiO(2) (AR) nanofibers, which was discussed in terms of the three-way photosynergistic effect between SnS(2), TiO(2) (A) and TiO(2) (R) component in the SnS(2)/TiO(2) (AR) heterojunction resulting in the high separation efficiency of photoinduced electron-hole pairs, as evidenced by photoluminescence (PL) and surface photovoltage spectra (SPS).

Details

ISSN :
20403372
Volume :
5
Issue :
2
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Nanoscale
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....73808a4e3827ad7767b01f355528f717