Synthesis and characterization of hierarchical SnO2 hollow octahedra

• Novel hierarchical SnO2 hollow octahedra have been obtained.
• The hollow octahedra were built by SnO2 nanorod arrays.
• Thermal treatment of ZnSn(OH)6 precursor in ammonia solution leading to the formation of SnO2.

In this letter, the formation of the hierarchical SnO2 hollow octahedra was achieved by thermal treatment of ZnSn(OH)6 precursors in ammonia solution. The synthesized SnO2 was characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). The XRD pattern indicated the formation of well crystallized SnO2. The FE-SEM and HR-TEM images showed that the hollow octahedra were built by SnO2 nanorod arrays. A possible formation mechanism for this kind of hollow octahedron structure was proposed. Room temperature photoluminescence shows that hierarchical SnO2 hollow octahedra have two prominent emission bands at 575 and 625 nm.