Facile one-step synthesis of TiO/Ag/SnO ternary heterostructures with enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity.

Novel TiO/Ag/SnO composites were successfully prepared by a facile one-step reduction approach using stannous chloride as both SnO precursor and reducing agent. The Ag nanoparticles with sizes of 2.04-3.94 nm were located on TiO matrix and immobilized by the surrounded SnO. The resulted TiO/Ag/SnO nanocomposites were used as photocatalyst for photodegradation of methylene blue under visible light. The experimental results demonstrated that the visible light photocatalytic activity of the TiO/Ag/SnO was significantly enhanced in comparison with the individual TiO or the binary composite (TiO/Ag or TiO/SnO) and the degradation rate was up to about 9.5 times that of commercial TiO. The photocatalytic activity of the TiO/Ag/SnO composites could be well controlled by simply tuning the dosages of Ag precursor and the optimized activity of the composites was obtained when the dosage of Ag precursor was 2%. Moreover, the TiO/Ag/SnO photocatalyst exhibited high stability for degradation of methylene blue even after four successive cycles.