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Abstract
Here novel photocatalysts, SnO2/CuO and CuO/SnO2 nanocomposites were successfully synthesized by chemical method at room temperature. X-ray Diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform Infrared (FT-IR), UV–Visible (UV–Vis) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy were utilized for characterization of the nanocomposites. The photocatalytic activity of the nanocomposites was investigated. The hybrid nanocomposites exhibited high photocatalytic activity as evident from the degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye. The result revealed substantial degradation of the MB dye (92 and 69.5% degradation of SnO2/CuO and CuO/SnO2, respectively) under visible light illumination with short period of 30 min. Their large conduction band potential difference and the inner electrostatic field formed in the p–n heterojunction provide a strong driving force for the photogenerated electrons to move from Cu2O to SnO2 under visible light illumination. The excellent photodegradation of methylene blue suggested that the heterostructured SnO2/CuO nanocomposite possessed higher charge separation and photodegradation abilities than CuO/SnO2 nanocomposite under visible light irradiation.
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1 Institute of Natural Science and Mathematics, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, Russia
2 Electrochemical Materials Science Division, CSIR-Central Electrochemical Research Institute, Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu, India
3 Institute of Natural Science and Mathematics, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, Russia; Mikheev Institute of Metal Physics of UB of RAS, Yekaterinburg, Russia