Heterostructured SnO2-pillared Co-doped tantalotungstate with high photocatalytic activity under visible-light irradiation

Heterostructured SnO2-pillared Co-doped tantalotungstate nanohybrid was assembled by H1+3xTa1−xCoxWO6 nanosheets and SnO2 nanoparticles in an alternate stacking fashion by an exfoliation–restacking route. It was revealed that the cobalt element in the resultant materials is bivalent and that the as-prepared pillared nanohybrid is mesoporous with a specific surface area of about 80 m2 g−1. The pillared nanohybrid exhibited an excellent photocatalytic activity in the degradation of methylene blue under visible-light irradiation, attributed to the narrowing of the band-gap separation, the strong electronic coupling between the guest and the host, and the expansion of the surface area. The observation highlights the validity of exfoliated oxide-semiconductor nanosheets as effective building blocks for developing efficient visible-light-driven photocatalysts for solar energy utilization.