Hierarchical Porous SnO2 Microflowers Photocatalyst

Novel hierarchical porous SnO2 microflowers are obtained via a solvent induced and surfactant-assisted selfassembly method followed by a calcination process. The as-synthesized SnO2 microflowers consist of many porous nanorods with a length of 3 mu m. A possible growth mechanism governing the formation of SnO2 microflowers was discussed by adjusting the mole ratio of SnCl2 center dot 2H(2)O to H2C2O4 center dot 2H(2)O and the volume ratio of C2H5OH to PEG400. Photocatalytic activities of SnO2 microflowers are investigated by degrading methylene blue (MB), methyl orange (MO) and rhodamine B (RhB) aqueous solution. The results reveal that the obtained SnO2 microflowers exhibit a superior photocatalytic activity and extremely high degradation efficiency, as well as good reproducibility and stability, which may be ascribed to the unique hierarchical porous flower-like microstructure.