Silica-tin nanotubes prepared from rice husk ash by sol-gel method: Characterization and its photocatalytic activity

Silica-tin material has been synthesized by simple sol-gel method using rice husk ash as the source of silica and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as the surfactant at room temperature. Calcination of the material at 500 °C for 5 h gave nanotubes with external diameter of 2-4 nm and an internal diameter of 1-2 nm. The BET specific surface area was found to be 607 m2 g−1. Nitrogen sorption analysis exhibits a type IV isotherm with H3 hysteresis loop. The powder X-ray diffraction pattern showed that the material is amorphous. The photocatalytic activity of the prepared material was studied towards degradation of methylene blue under UV-irradiation. According to the experimental results the silica-tin nanotubes exhibit high photocatalytic activity compared to pure rice husk silica.