In Situ Decoration of ZnSnO3 Nanosheets on the Surface of Hollow Zn2SnO4 Octahedrons for Enhanced Solar Energy Application

Zhengdao Li; Kecheng Liu; Ruixue Sun; Chuanyun Yang; Xiaodi Liu

doi:10.3390/nano12122124

In Situ Decoration of ZnSnO₃ Nanosheets on the Surface of Hollow Zn₂SnO₄ Octahedrons for Enhanced Solar Energy Application

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022 Jun 20;12(12):2124. doi: 10.3390/nano12122124.

Authors

Zhengdao Li^{1

2}, Kecheng Liu¹, Ruixue Sun¹, Chuanyun Yang^{1

2}, Xiaodi Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Engineering College, Nanyang Normal University, Nanyang 473061, China.
² Engineering Technology-Research Center of Henan Province for Solar Catalysis, Nanyang Normal University, Nanyang 473061, China.

Abstract

Hierarchical ZnSnO₃/Zn₂SnO₄ porous hollow octahedrons were constructed using the method of combining the acid etching process with the in situ decoration technique for photovoltaic and photocatalytic applications. The composite was used as photoanode of the dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), an overall 4.31% photovoltaic conversion efficiency was obtained, nearly a 73.1% improvement over the DSSCs that used Zn₂SnO₄ solid octahedrons. The composite was also determined to be a high-performance photocatalyst for the removal of heavy metal ion Cr (VI) and antibiotic ciprofloxacin (CIP) in single and co-existing systems under simulated sunlight irradiation. It was remarkable that the composite displayed good reusability and stability in a co-existing system, and the simultaneous removal performance could be restored by a simple acid treatment. These improvements of solar energy utilization were ascribed to the synergetic effect of the hierarchical porous hollow morphology, the introduction of ZnSnO₃ nanosheets, and the heterojunction formed between ZnSnO₃ and Zn₂SnO₄, which could improve light harvesting capacity, expedite electron transport and charge-separation efficiencies.

Keywords: ZnSnO3/Zn2SnO4; dye-sensitized solar cells; hierarchical hollow octahedron; photocatalytic activity; simultaneous removal.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (No. 21301101), Incubation Foundation of Nanyang Normal University (No. 2022PY006), Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province (No. 182300410287), Natural Science Foundation of Henan Department of Education (No. 18A150013).