Heterogeneous photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes by highly efficient GdCoSnO3

The influence of calcination temperature on the photocatalytic activity of quaternary metal oxide nanocomposite i.e. gadolinium (Gd) doped cobalt tin oxide (CoSnO3) have been explored. The synthesis of nanocomposite material was completed in two steps using a novel method. The synthesized nanocomposite material was subjected to various characterization techniques like thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), particle size analyzer (PSA), UV-Visible and photoluminescence spectroscopy in order to investigate its thermal, structural, and optical properties. The crystallite size, particle size and optical band gap estimated via XRD, PSA and UV-Visible spectroscopy, respectively reveals an increasing trend with calcination temperature. The Gd doped CoSnO3 nanocomposite material is found to be very efficient visible light photocatalyst. The photo-degradation efficiency in the presence of sunlight in degrading methylene blue and methyl orange is more than 90%. An insight mechanism of electron/hole trapping using electronic configuration has also been explored.

Automated summary

The study investigated the influence of calcination temperature on the photocatalytic activity of Gd doped CoSnO3 nanocomposite material, revealing an increasing trend in crystallite size, particle size, and optical band gap with increased calcination temperature. The nanocomposite material exhibited high efficiency as a visible light photocatalyst, showing over 90% photodegradation efficiency for organic dyes under sunlight irradiation.