Title
Hydrothermal synthesis of SnO2 – ZnO aggregates in cellulose aerogels for photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B
Authors
YUE JIAO CAICHAO WAN and JIAN LI

Received November 19, 2016
Published Volume 52 Issue 1-2 January-February
Keywords cellulose aerogels, nanocomposites, photocatalysts, hydrothermal method

Abstract
Cellulose aerogels have been considered as ideal green matrices to support various nanoparticles due to their hierarchical porous nanostructures and an ocean of surface hydroxyl groups. Herein, an easily-operated low-energy hydrothermal method was implemented to synthesize SnO2–ZnO aggregates in cellulose aerogels. The well-dispersed aggregates with the mean diameter of 45.4 nm are tightly adhered on the three-dimensional framework of the aerogels, due to the strong interactions between the hydroxyl groups of cellulose and the oxygen atoms of SnO2 or ZnO. Furthermore, the tri-component composite shows good photocatalytic activity for degradation of rhodamine B under ultraviolet irradiation, which is possibly helpful to deal with dyestuff wastewater as a kind of low-pollution cost-effective photocatalyst.