Photocatalytic decomposition of dyes using ZnO doped SnO2 nanoparticles prepared by solvothermal method

ZnO doped SnO2 has been successfully synthesized by the solvothermal method using methanol as organic solvent. The effect of ZnO/SnO2 molar ratios on the crystal structure, microstructure, optical and photocatalytic properties has been investigated. The synthesized samples are characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, N2 physical adsorption, FT-IR spectroscopy and UV–Vis spectroscopy. XRD results revealed that all diffraction peaks positions agree well with the reflection of a tetragonal rutile structure of SnO2 phase without extra peaks at 0.1ZnO:0.9SnO2 and 0.2ZnO:0.8SnO2 molar ratios. However, the secondary phase of ZnO at 0.3ZnO:0.7SnO2 molar ratio was investigated. TEM images revealed that the shape of SnO2 particles was spherical and the particle sizes of SnO2 and 0.3ZnO:0.7SnO2 molar ratio were 6.2 and 16.4 nm, respectively. The newly prepared samples have been tested by the determination of photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB). The results indicated that Zn2+ doping at 0.3ZnO:0.7 SnO2 molar ratio showed the highest photocatalytic activity for the MB photodegradation. The heightened photocatalytic activity of ZnO/SnO2 could be ascribed to the enhanced charge separation derived from the coupling of ZnO with SnO2 due to the potential energy differences between SnO2 and ZnO. The recycling tests demonstrated that 0.3ZnO:0.7 SnO2 photocatalysts were quite stable during that liquid–solid heterogeneous photocatalysis since no decrease in activity in the first four cycles was observed.