Bi-functional Al-doped ZnO@SnO2 heteronanowires as efficient substrates for improving photocatalytic and SERS performance

Bi-functional Al-doped ZnO@SnO2 heteronanowires systematically analyzed as high-performance substrates for photocatalytic and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) applications. For the photocatalytic application, the Al-doped ZnO@SnO2 heteronanowires can exhibit highly efficient and reusable photocatalysts in the photodecomposition of rhodamine 6G solution under low-powered UV-light irradiation, which ascribed to improve the inhabitation of electron-hole pairs recombination and higher surface active sites. For the SERS application, Al-doped ZnO@SnO2 heteronanowires revealed suitable geometry to deposit Ag nanoparticles with higher density and more hot spots in three-dimensional structures, which can provide high SERS enhancement, low detection limit (amoxicillin 10(-10)M), high reproducibility, and stability. (C) 2019 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.