Ultrasonic-promoted growth of staggered heterostructured tin(II) oxide nanoparticles on bulk carbon nitride nanolayer: Activated in solar spectrum with enhanced photocatalytic treatment of dyes effluents

The present work introduced ultrasonic-promoted growth of staggered heterostructured nanoparticle-on-nanolayer tin(II) oxide-bulk carbon nanophotocatalysts. A series of SnO2-bulk g-C3N4 nanophotocatalysts with various ratios of SnO2 to bulk g-C3N4 (BGCN) were prepared by an ultrasound-promoted solvothermal synthesis approach. The synthesized samples were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), Brunner, Emmett and Teller-Barrett-Joyner and Halenda (BET-BJH), fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and differential reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) techniques. Due to the investigation of photocatalytic performance, the decomposition of methyl orange (MO) and acid orange 7 (AO7) was examined as model pollutants under simulated sunlight irradiation. Characterization results showed that tin oxide content in the nanocomposite framework had a sig-nificant effect on the structural properties of SnO2-BGCN photocatalysts. It was found that the most promoting result of SnO2 was obtained over the SnO2-BGCN (3:1) sample prepared by 75 wt% SnO2 and 25 wt% bulk g-C3N4. The highest photoactivity was also ascribed to the SnO2-BGCN (3:1) sample (98% deletion of MO and 88% deletion of AO7), which led to the better separation efficiency of electrons and holes. Furthermore, the suggested reaction mechanism for dye degradation was discussed in detail.

Automated summary

This study introduces the ultrasonic-promoted growth of staggered heterostructured nanoparticle-on-nanolayer tin(II) oxide-bulk carbon nanophotocatalysts. The photocatalytic performance of various ratios of SnO2-bulk g-C3N4 nanophotocatalysts was investigated, and the structural properties of the samples were analyzed using multiple characterization techniques. It was found that the tin oxide content in the nanocomposite framework significantly affected the structural properties of the photocatalysts and the separation efficiency of electrons and holes. The suggested reaction mechanism for dye degradation was also discussed in detail.