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SnSe/SnO2 nanocomposites: novel material for photocatalytic degradation of industrial waste dyes

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Abstract

SnSe-/SnO2-based in situ nanocomposites have been prepared by facile chemical co-precipitation method. These nanocomposites are vacuum-annealed at 400 °C to improve crystallinity. Structural properties of as-deposited and annealed nanocomposites were studied from X-ray diffraction (XRD). Morphological and optical properties are studied by transmission electron microscope (TEM), photoluminescence (PL) and Raman and XPS spectroscopy. The average size of nanoparticles was observed to be in two different ranges: < 10 nm of SnO2 and 30–40 nm of SnSe. PL emission spectra of nanocomposites show strong blue emission (426 nm) and green emission (512 nm) bands which highlight their potential applications in optoelectronics and colour labelling. The photocatalytic activities of the synthesized nanocomposites have been carried out on industrial waste dyes such as methylene blue and rhodamine B. The photodegradation of these dyes under the exposure of sunlight is found to be > 90% in 90 min. The possible mechanism of photodegradation of dyes by nanocomposite has been discussed. The degradation mechanism of rhodamine B dye via rate-limiting stepwise de-ethylation process is suggested. The de-ethylation intermediate products are confirmed by LC-MS measurements.

The efficient separation of photogenerated electron and holes in SnSe/SnO2 nanocomposite leads to enhancement in the formation of free radicals.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge Prof. Sujeet Chaudhary, IIT Delhi, for helping in providing vacuum annealing, Raman and XRD measurement facilities; Dr. Praveen Kumar, DAV University for PL measurements; Dr. Palwinder Singh, GNDU, Amritsar, for LC-MS measurement facility; Mr. Manmeet Singh for XPS measurements; and Dr. Gurpreet Kaur for fruitful result discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, DAV University, Jalandhar, India

    Daljit Kaur, Vandana Bagga, Bhawna Thakral, Ashish Asija, Jaspreet Kaur & Simranjeet Kaur

  2. Department of Physics, IIT Delhi, New Delhi, India

    Nilamani Behera

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  1. Daljit Kaur
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  2. Vandana Bagga
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Kaur, D., Bagga, V., Behera, N. et al. SnSe/SnO2 nanocomposites: novel material for photocatalytic degradation of industrial waste dyes. Adv Compos Hybrid Mater 2, 763–776 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42114-019-00130-7

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