Environmentally friendly photoactive heterojunction zinc tin oxide nanoparticles

Heterojunction zinc tin oxide (ZnO/SnO2) nanoparticles were prepared using a top–down traditional solid-state method; mechanical grinding followed by annealing, and characterized by X-ray diffraction, multi-wavelength excitation Raman scattering, scanning electron microscopy, diffuse reflectance and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The photocatalytic degradation kinetics of amitriptyline in the presence of the obtained ZnO/SnO2 nanoparticles under simulated solar and UVA irradiation was determined and used as a model reaction for understanding the photocatalytic mechanism when such mixed oxide semiconductors are used in removing the pharmaceutically active compounds from wastewaters.