Hydrothermal Synthesis, Formation Mechanism and Photocatalytic Activity of SnO 2 /BiOBr

Abstract SnO 2 /BiOBr photocatalytic materials were successfully synthesized by hydrothermal method with BiOBr as the precursor. X‐ray diffraction studies confirmed that BiOBr and SnO 2 were successfully combined. After characterization, we proposed a possible formation mechanism for SnO 2 /BiOBr. The degradation experiment showed that the degradation rate of norfloxacin using SnO 2 /BiOB‐4 reached 85.9 %, which was approximately 50 and 65 percentage points higher than that of pure BiOBr and SnO 2 , respectively. The reaction rate was 4.3 times that of BiOBr. Based on the analysis of the degradation mechanism, the improved photocatalytic performance may be attributed to the optimized energy band structure resulting from the combination of the two monomers. This promotes the effective separation of photogenerated electrons and holes, leading to the generation of more active substances such as ⋅O 2 − and h + . As a result, the oxidation capacity is enhanced.