Nanocrystalline ZnSb2O6: Hydrothermal synthesis, electronic structure and photocatalytic activity

Abstract Nanocrystalline ZnSb 2 O 6 with small particles size and large BET specific area (131.4 m 2 /g) was successfully prepared via a facile hydrothermal method directly from Sb 2 O 5 and was fully characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), N 2 -sorption BET surface area, UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The as-prepared ZnSb 2 O 6 showed photocatalytic activity for the degradation of typical dyes rhodamine B (RhB) and methyl orange (MO) in the aqueous solution under UV irradiations. The electronic structure of ZnSb 2 O 6 was studied by density functional theory (DFT). The different photocatalytic performance between ZnSb 2 O 6 and Sr 2 Sb 2 O 7 , another ternary antimonate photocatalyst, can be explained in terms of their different electronic structures and different crystal structures.