Environmentally benign synthesis of Co₃O₄-SnO₂ heteronanorods with efficient photocatalytic performance activated by...

One-dimensional (1D) heterostructured photocatalysts with controllable texture properties and compositions have attracted increasing interest owing to their unique optical, structural, and electronic advantages. Herein, 1D Co₃O₄-SnO₂ heteronanorods were rationally designed and synthesized through a facile solution-based approach. Benefiting from both of their heterostructural and compositional characteristics, the resulting Co₃O₄-SnO₂ heteronanorods exhibit high photocatalytic performance for the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible-light irridation. In particular, the photocatalyst with a Co₃O₄/SnO₂ mass ratio of 1:1 provides the best photocatalytic performance, which can degrade 90% RhB within 120 min. Besides, several reaction parameters affecting RhB degradation, such as churning time, calcination temperature and pH value, are investigated in detail. The enhanced photocatalytic activity can be attributed to the broadening of absorption spectrum to visible-light regions and the efficient charge separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs due to the formed p-n heterojunctions. The strategy reported here can be able to expand to fabricate other heterostructured photocatalysts for practical applications in the fields of photocatalysis, water splitting, and solar cells.