Facile synthesis of NiO-SnO2 nanocomposite for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of bismarck brown

The n-n type NiO-SnO2 nanocomposite was fabricated using malic acid following a simple one-pot co-precipitation method. The fabricated NiO-SnO2 nanocomposite was employed as a photocatalyst to degrade bismarck brown dye under direct sunlight. TEM, SAED, XRD, XPS, EDX, FTIR, and UV spectra have been recorded to characterize the synthesized NiO-SnO2 nanostructures. TEM studies found that the average particle size was 11 nm, and the SAED confirmed the polycrystalline nature of the synthesized nanocomposite. It was found that 98 % of 20 mg/L bismarck brown dye was degraded by 20 mg/L of photocatalyst within 70 min irradiation of sunlight at an optimum pH of 11. Further studies showed that the degradation followed pseudo-first-order kinetics with a rate constant of 4.5 x 10(-2) min(-1) and obeyed the Langmuir-Hinshelwood isotherm model. The fabricated NiOSnO2 nanocomposite was reusable up to 8 times; hence, it proved to be an efficient catalyst for the photo degradation of bismarck brown dye.