Hydroxide SrSn(OH)6: A new photocatalyst for degradation of benzene and rhodamine B

A novel photocatalyst SrSn(OH)(6) was successfully synthesized via a facile homogeneous precipitation method. The photocatalytic activities of the as-prepared SrSn(OH)(6) were evaluated by the degradation of benzene and rhodamine B under the irradiation of 254 nm UV light. The experimental results indicated that SrSn(OH)(6) synthesized at a lower pH value had a better photocatalytic activity. Furthermore, compared with commercial TiO2 (P25), the as-prepared SrSn(OH)(6) showed a better photocatalytic performance for degradation of benzene under 254 nm UV irradiation. During 32 h of photocatalytic process, the conversion ratio of benzene over SrSn(OH)(6) and TiO2 (P25) were 31% and 11%, and the mineralization ratio were about 55% and 16%, respectively. Based on the characterization results and the detection of active species, the high photocatalytic activity of SrSn(OH)(6) may attribute to the (OH)-O-center dot radicals, which play an important role in the degradation of both benzene and rhodamine B. This article enriches the study of hydroxide stannates and has reference significance for other hydroxide stannates. This work shows that the hexagonal phase of hydroxide stannate may not have much better or worse photocatalytic performance than cubic phase does. So, the crystal phase cannot be the main reason to influence the photocatalytic performance of hydroxide stannates. More research of other hydroxide stannates should focus on making good use of the hydroxyl groups in its structure. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.