Novel flower‐like Sn–Cu and cactus‐like Sn–Ag nanocatalysts for photo catalytically removal of toxic pollutant

In this study, dendrite-like Sn nanocomposites were achieved by engineering the synthesis parameters. The dendritic Sn nanostructures show higher photocatalytic activity compared to nanoplate Sn and hierarchical Sn nanostructures. Flower-like Sn–Cu and cactus-like Sn–Ag nanostructures were prepared to improve the photocatalytic activity of Sn nanostructures. Adding Cu and Ag improved the photocatalytic activity of Sn by 24% and 46%, respectively. The photodegradation results revealed that the cactus-like Sn–Ag has a high degradation rate (5.3 × 10ˉ⁴ mmol Lˉ¹ minˉ¹) compared to the Sn nanostructures (2.9 × 10ˉ⁴ mmol Lˉ¹ minˉ¹). This work provides new insight into the design of highly efficient photocatalysts by engineering the morphology.