Photocatalytic activities of electrospun tin oxide doped titanium dioxide nanofibers

SnO2 doped TiO2 electropsun nanofiber photocatalysts were successfully prepared by means of electrospinning process. The surface morphology, structure and optical properties of the resultant products were characterized by field-emission electron microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV-vis spectroscopy, photoluminescence (PL) and cathodoluminescence (CL) techniques. The utilized physiochemical analyses indicated that the introduced SnO2 doped TiO2 nanofibers have a smooth surface and uniform diameters along their lengths. The photocatalytic performance of the composite nanofibers was tested for degradation of methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO) dye solution under ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. Under the UV irradiation, the photocatalytic reaction rate in case of utilizing SnO2-doped TiO2 nanofibers was rapidly increased than that of the pristine TiO2 nanofibers. Overall, this study demonstrates cheap, stable and effective material for photocatalytic degradation at room temperature. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.