Investigations on the structural, optical and visible light photocatalytic activity of Cu3SnS4 prepared by mechanical alloying

Cu3SnS4 has been synthesized by mechano-chemical process and the structural and optical characterizations were performed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope (SEM), high resolution TEM, photoluminescence (PL), UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS) and emission spectroscopy. The XRD data showed that the most intense peak at 28.32° belongs to (112) plane of Cu3SnS4. The SEM and TEM confirmed the strong agglomeration of particles. The band gap value was estimated to be 1.53 eV with direct transition. The visible light photocatalytic response of Cu3SnS4 was determined and 78% degradation of MB has been observed. It has been confirmed that the direct participation of holes form the major role in degradation of MB. The results indicate the potential applications of the mechano-chemically synthesized Cu3SnS4 as visible light-photocatalyst.