Facile synthesis of mesoporous SnO2 microspheres using bioactive yeast cell

Mesoporous structure SnO2 microspheres with core-shell structure were synthesized through a facile method using SnCl4 as raw material, bioactive yeast cell as a bio-template, respectively. The products were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, high resolution scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy and nitrogen adsorption/desorption measurements. Results showed that regular oval-like microspheres with core-shell structure can be formed when the bioactive yeast cell was added, and the mean size of the microspheres was in the range of 2 to 3 μm. The as-prepared SnO2 microspheres presented a high specific surface area of 85.7 m2/g and a mesoporous structure with the pore size of 38.8 nm. TEM showed that the crystal size of SnO2 was about 6 ± 0.5 nm. A possible formation mechanism for this kind of core-shell structure was proposed.