Preparation and enhanced photocatalytic performance of Sn ion modified titania hollow spheres

Abstract Sn-doped hollow titania spheres were prepared using carbon spheres as template and Sn-doped titania nanoparticles as building blocks. The Sn-doped titania nanoparticles were synthesized under mild condition (low temperature and atmospheric pressure). The prepared hollow spheres were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The effects of Sn content on the physical structure and photocatalytic activity of doped hollow titania sphere samples were investigated. It shows that the increasing of Sn content induces the transformation of titania from anatase to rutile phase. Results also showed that there was an optimal Sn-doped content (5%) in our samples for the photocatalytic degradation of Reactive Brilliant Red X-3B (C.I. reactive red 2).