Spectroscopic, magnetic and antibacterial properties of Sr-doped SnS2 nanopowders

Sr-doped SnS2 nanopowders with 0, 5, 10 and 15 wt.% Sr concentrations were synthesized by a simple soft chemical route. XRD studies confirm the polycrystalline nature of the samples. The undoped and doped SnS2 nanopowders exhibit hexagonal crystal structure with a strong (1 0 1) preferential orientation. The 2θ values of the (1 0 1) plane of the undoped SnS2 shift towards lower angle with Sr doping. Nanoneedles are evinced for all the samples from the SEM images. EDX spectra confirm the presence of Sr in the doped samples. The optical band gap of pure SnS2 decreases with Sr doping. Peaks related to SnS2 are evinced at 572 nm in the PL spectra and at 313 cm−1 and 203 cm−1 in the Raman spectra. Improved ferromagnetic orderings in the form of S-shaped loops were observed for the doped samples. Antibacterial studies show that the zone of inhibition of SnS2 increases with Sr-doping. The obtained results infer that Sr2+, a cationic dopant ion strongly enhanced the physical properties of SnS2 nanopowders.