Iron doped SnO2/Co3O4 nanocomposites synthesized by sol-gel and precipitation method for metronidazole antibiotic degradation

•Un-doped and Fe-doped SnO2/Co3O4 nanocomposites were applied as photocatalyst.•The nanocomposites exhibited photocatalytic property under UV light.•The maximum degradation was observed for Fe-doped SnO2/Co3O4 (1:1) photocatalyst.•0.1 g photocatalyst is sufficient to carry out 98.3% degradation of MTZ.

Sol-gel and precipitation reaction methods were used to synthesize Un-doped and Fe-doped SnO2/Co3O4 nanocomposites under UV light; the synthesized nanocomposites were applied for the photocatalytic degradation of metronidazole antibiotic. The developed photo catalyst was well characterized using energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), UV–Visible and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. Effective parameters such as pH, photocatalyst dose and contact time was optimized and well investigated. From the obtained facts it is clear that the 98.3% of MTZ was degraded with in 15 min, pH 6 and 0.1 g catalyst when the Fe molar ratio was 1:1 at %. As compared to results obtained from un-doped SnO2/Co3O4 nanocomposites Fe doped SnO2/Co3O4 nanocomposites possess greater photocatalytic efficiency.

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