Morphology-controlled synthesis of Sn3O4 nanowires for enhanced solar-light driven photocatalytic H2 production

Herein, present paper we have successfully demonstrated a facile hydrothermal synthesis of Sn3O4 nanowires for efficient hydrogen production under solar light irradiation. The triclinic phase and chemical composition were accomplished by XRD and XPS respectively. The morphological characterization using FESEM revealed nanowire-like morphology of the as-synthesized material. The optical band gap for Sn3O4 nanowires was found to be 2.55 eV. In view of the band structure in the visible region, the photocatalytic activity of the as-synthesized Sn3O4 photocatalyst for the hydrogen production via. H2S splitting under natural sunlight has been investigated. The Sn3O4 nanowires demonstrated excellent photocatalytic activity (3933.65μmol/0.5g/h) for hydrogen production. Improved photocatalytic activity was attributed to the morphology and crystallinity of as-synthesized Sn3O4 nanowires. Based on results obtained possible mechanism for the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution was illustrated.