Hydrothermal Synthesis And Visible-light Photocatalytic Activity Of SnS2/TiO2 Composite Nanoflakes

SnS2/TiO2 composite photocatalysts with high visible-light photocatalytic activity were synthesized via the hydrothermal treated from tin (IV) chloride pentahydrate, citric acid, thioacetamide and commercial P25 TiO2 at 150 degrees C for 12h. Powder X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy revealed that products were bulk-pure hexagonal phase SnS2 and rutitle-anatase phase TiO2 nanoflakes. UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra disclosed that the as-synthesized SnS2/TiO2 nanoflakes had optical bandgaps in the range of about 2.32 - 2.41 eV. In addition, the photocatalytic performances of the as synthesized SnS2-based nanoparticles were evaluated by degrading methyl orange (20 mg/L MO) in deionized water under the visible-light and real sunlight irradiation. The results demonstrated that all the SnS2 and SnS2/TiO2 products had high visible-light photocatalytic activity, and the most efficient photocatalyst was the molar ratios of Ti: Sn is 0.2. The greatly photocatalytic performance of the as-synthesized SnS2/TiO2 composite nanoparticles was mainly attributed to the matching band potentials of SnS2 and TiO2 and the efficient charge transfer and separation at their tightly integrated interface.