Fabrication of the SnO(2)/alpha-Fe(2)O(3) Hierarchical Heterostructure and Its Enhanced Photocatalytic Property

Abstract

A necklacelike SnO(2)/alpha-Fe(2)O(3) hierarchical heterostructure was successfully fabricated by chemical vapor deposition method, using SnO(2) nanowires with the preferential growth direction of [001] direction as template. Element mapping and transmission electron microscopy analysis proved that the hierarchical heterostructure was factually an assembly constructed with a SnO(2)/alpha-Fe(2)O(3) nanocable and a series of pure alpha-Fe(2)O(3) disks, and the interfacial orientation relation ship was (100)(SnO2),//(110)(Fe2O3) and [001] (SnO2)// [001] (FeO3). Such a novel hierarchical heterostructure has been proved to present enhanced photocatalytic ability to degradation of methylene blue under visible light due to improvement of the hole electron separation efficiency.