Luminescent and photocatalytic properties of hollow SnO2 nanospheres

• We prepared size tunable hollow SnO2 nanospheres by sacrificing template method.
• We characterized properties of as-synthesized SnO2 and compared with solid SnO2 nanosphere.
• Hollow SnO2 nanosphere exhibits higher photoluminescence intensity than solid SnO2.
• Hollow SnO2 nanosphere exhibits stronger photocatalytic activity than solid SnO2.
• We discussed the relationship between specific surface area and optical properties.

Size tunable solid SnO2 (STO) and hollow SnO2 (HTO) nanospheres were prepared by a sacrificing template method. The peaks around 390 nm were observed in photoluminescence (PL) spectra. Based on the results, the PL intensity exhibits morphology-dependence and size-dependence, and HTO structure displays better optical properties than STO structure. The degradation of Methyl Orange (MO) in aqueous solution is selected as a probe reaction to evaluate the catalytic activity of nano-SnO2. The result shows that HTO structure presents stronger photocatalytic (PC) activity. According to the result of specific surface area testing, the improved PL and PC properties of HTO structure can be mainly explained by the surface effect induced by large specific surface area. This work is meaningful for developing nanomaterials with enhanced optical and photochemical properties.