Correlation between the photocatalysis and growth mechanism of SnO2 nanocrystals. (10th February 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhan, Hongquan; Deng, Ce; Shi, Xiao-Lei; Wu, Chuanqi; Li, Xiaohong; Xie, Zhipeng; Wang, Changan; Chen, Zhi-Gang
• Is Part Of: Journal of physics. Volume 53:Number 15(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-02-10
• Subjects: growth mechanism -- photocatalysis -- SnO2; Physics -- Periodicals; 530
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6463/ab6b96
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-3727

Abstract

Abstract: Due to the special structural defects, SnO2 -based nanomaterials show full potentials for applying to photocatalysis. In this work, we explore the relationship between photocatalysis and growth mechanism of SnO2 nanocrystals. Through a pH-modifying method, the growth of SnO2 nanocrystals follows Ostwald ripening (OR) mode at pH = 9, and oriented attachment (OA) mode at pH = 1.5, respectively. We comprehensively studied the structural characteristics of SnO2 nanocrystals by investigating high-resolution transmission electron microscope, x-ray diffraction, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller nitrogen physisorption, UV–vis diffuses reflectance, and photoluminescence spectra, and the results with growth dynamic simulation show that OA mode is obviously different from OR mode, and the photocatalytic performance of SnO2 nanocrystals varies under different growth mechanisms. The factors including crystal structure, particle size, and defects are all responsible for the variation of photocatalytic performance during OR or OA growth. Our study indicates that the photocatalytic performance of SnO2 nanocrystals can be tuned by the controlling of crystal growth mode.