ZnO doped SnO2 nanoparticles heterojunction photo-catalyst for environmental remediation

ZnO doped SnO2 nanoparticles were synthesized by facile and simple hydrothermal technique and used as an effective photocatalyst for the photocatalytic degradation of harmful and toxic organic dye. The prepared nanoparticles were characterized in detail using different techniques for morphological, structural and optical properties. The characterization results revealed that the synthesized nanoparticles possess both crystal phases of tetragonal rutile phase of pure SnO2 and wurtzite hexagonal phase of ZnO. In addition, the nanoparticles were synthesized in very high quantity with good crystallinity. The photocatalytic activity of prepared nanoparticles was evaluated by the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye. Detailed photocatalytic experiments based on the effects of irradiation time, catalyst dose and pH were performed and presented in this paper. The detailed photocatalytic experiments revealed that the synthesized ZnO doped SnO2 nanoparticles heterojunction photocatalyst exhibit best photocatalytic performance when the catalyst dose was 0.25 g/L and pH = 10. ZnO doped SnO2 nanoparticles heterojunction photocatalyst was also compared with commercially available TiO2 (PC-50), TiO2 (PC-500) and SnO2 and interestingly ZnO doped SnO2 nanoparticles exhibited superior photocatalytic performance. The presented work demonstrates that the prepared ZnO doped SnO2 nanoparticles are promising material for the photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes and toxic chemicals. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.