Synthesis of TiO-N/SnO heterostructure photocatalyst and its photocatalytic mechanism.

A series of TiO-N/SnOX heterostructure photocatalysts were synthesized by a hydrolysis-deposition method. The structure, existing states of N and SnO heterostructure at the interface of TiO-N/SnOX were studied by EADX, XRD, Raman, FT-IR, XPS, and HRTEM. The band structure is investigated by both theoretical calculation and experiment characterization. It was found that the introduction of NO surface species and SnO nanoparticles would enhance the absorption in visible region, increase reactive oxidative species and separate photogenerated electrons and holes efficiently. Therefore, the photocatalytic activity is improved significantly for TiO-N/SnOX, compared with TiO-N and TiO under visible and UV light irradiation. This work may offer a new strategy to fabricate new photocatalyst with high photocatalytic performance.