Synthesis of tetragonal SnO2 photocatalyst for Micro-structural analysis and visible light driven Fenton-like degradation of Methylene Blue

The present study reports a simple co-precipitation followed by solid state method for the synthesis of tetragonal SnO2 nanoparticles.The nanoparticles were characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM, DLS, UV-vis, and PL techniques to examine the structural properties, functional group, morphological and electronic properties. As prepared SnO2 NPs has been used for Fenton-like degradation of Methylene blue(MB) in presence of solar light in aqueous solution.The structural analysis and Rietveld refinement revealed that the tetragonal SnO2 NPs have been well formed. The mean crystallite size of the synthesized nanoparticles was found to be 16.47 nm using the Scherrer formula.The Williamson-Hall method determines strain throughout the crystal. The effect of various parameters such as catalyst dose, dye concentration, H2O2 concentration, pH and temperature was examined.The complete degradation of MB was obtained at pH=9. The results obtained from kinetics showed that degradation of MB dye follows pseudo-first order rate with the rate constant k(1) is 7.889x10(-2) min(-1). From Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET) surface analysis, we have determined the surface area and average pore size of SnO2 NPs. All parameters were measured by Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET) surface analysis with nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherm.The pore volume and pore diameter was calculated by BJH (Barrett-Joyner-Halenda) model.