Motivated by this challenge, researchers led by Guangshe Li from the State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry at the Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter (FJIRSM), China, have performed a case study using the semiconductor SnO2. The team successfully prepared SnO2 nanostructures with Zn2+ doping at the surface sites, which showed excellent activity towards the photodegradation of methylene blue solution when irradiated by UV light.
"It is amazing that surface doping plays dual roles of effectively modulating the particle sizes and introducing the surface defects in separating electrons and holes necessary for increased photoefficiency," Li told nanotechweb.org. "Despite our good results, there is still a long way to go to put these materials into practical uses. The next challenge is to demonstrate how surface reconstruction such as surface doping or hybrids can actually prompt our ability to design and prepare high catalytic activities for effective environmental cleaning using solar light – the cheapest light source."
The researchers presented their work in Nanotechnology.