Tetragonal SnO2 Nanoparticles: An Efficient Photocatalyst for the Degradation of Hazardous Ionic Dyes

Abstract

AbstractAn elegant approach was made to synthesize tetragonal shape SnO2 nanoparticles using solution combustion method and subjected to various characterization (X‐ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV‐Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV‐DRS), Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, Raman spectra, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential thermal analysis (DTA), X‐ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS), N2 adsorption‐desorption isotherms (BET), liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry (LCMS). Dynamic light scattering (DLS) and Zeta potential (ZP), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive X‐rays analysis (EDAX), and High‐resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM)). Further, the as‐synthesized SnO2 nanoparticles were used for the degradation study of hazardous ionic dyes like cationic dye Malachite green (MG) and anionic dye Rose Bengal (RB), as well as its binary mixture (MG+RB) under the sunlight. Overall, it was observed that MG and RB degraded 100 % (80 min) and 99 % (90 min), while the mixture of (MG+RB) showed 97.5 % (140 min), respectively. Overall study shows that the degradation rate of MG in a mixture of both the dyes was higher than RB due to a positively charged surface. The time taken for degradation MG was 10 min less than that of RB. The fast degradation of MG was due to the cationic nature having a positive charge over the surface with the negatively charged surface of SnO2 nanoparticles, which is entirely different in the case of anionic dye RB.