Hydrothermal synthesis of hierarchical flower-like Zn-doped SnO2 architectures with enhanced photocatalytic activity

The hierarchical flower-like Zn-doped SnO2 (FLZn-SnO2) architectures composed of curved sheets are synthesized by a hydrothermal method at 180 °C for 8 h. We can obtain the morphological evolution of FLZn-SnO2 by a series of control experiments. Based on the nucleation and self-assembly process, a possible formation mechanism is proposed. The FLZn-SnO2 architectures exhibit higher photocatalytic activity in the degradation of Rhodamine B than pure SnO2 under visible light irradiation.