A General Hydrothermal Growth and Photocatalytic Performance of Barium Tin Hydroxide/Tin Dioxide Nanorods

Abstract Barium tin hydroxide/tin dioxide nanorods are synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method. The morphology, structure and optical performance of the nanorods are characterized via X‐ray diffraction, electron microscopy, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy and solid ultraviolet‐visible (UV‐vis) diffuse reflectance spectrum. The nanorods are mainly composed of monoclinic BaSn(OH) 6 and orthorhombic SnO 2 phases with the length and diameter of about 5 µm and 50–150 nm, respectively. The formation process of the nanorods is investigated based on the morphology and structure evolution of the products from different hydrothermal conditions. Solid UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectrum shows that the nanorods belong to typical semiconductor with the band gap of 3.74 eV. The barium tin hydroxide/tin dioxide nanorods are used for the photocatalytic degradation of gentian violet under UV light irradiation. The degradation efficiency reaches 93.2% with the irradiation time of 8 h adding 10 mg nanorods in 10 mL 10 mg mL −1 gentian violet solution. The reactive species trapping results show that hydroxyl radicals, holes and superoxide radicals are main reactive species for gentian violet degradation. The barium tin hydroxide/tin dioxide nanorods are stable for the photocatalytic reaction of the gentian violet.