Synergic effect of Sn-doped TiO2 nanostructures for enhanced visible light photocatalysis

In the recent years, metal oxides have attracted more interest for researchers because of their applications in energy and environmental domains. In the present work, the Sn-doped TiO2 nanoparticles were prepared by hydrothermal technique and the effect of Sn concentration has been investigated. The structural, morphological, surface composition, optical, and photocatalytic behavior were studied. XRD pattern revealed that doping of Sn makes the easy transformation of rutile from anatase phase at a lower temperature, providing the tetragonal structure of rutile TiO2. TEM analysis showed the formation of nanoparticles with sphere-like morphology with good crystallinity. From UV-Vis spectra, it is observed that optical absorption edge gets red-shifted upon Sn doping and the bandgap is found to be 2.6 eV. The photocatalytic activity of the synthesized nanoparticles has been investigated under visible light irradiation. Experimental results shows that 0.5wt% of Sn-doped nanoparticles exhibit improved photocatalytic properties.