Photocatalytic Efficiency of Nanostructured SnO₂ particles

The world without water is unimaginable and the demand for clean water is increasing rapidly for the survival of all living being. Adequate access to potable water is questionable for every one out of six people living today. So, the present work focus more on treatment of organic and industrial toxic pollutant contaminated water through photocatalysis. Co-precipitation based synthesized tin oxide (SnO2) nanoparticles preferred as catalyst to conduct photodegradation experiment. The crystallographic structure and cell parameters were calculated from XRD data. Tetragonal, rutile structure having calculated cell parameter a=b=4.735 nm and c=3.185 nm. As per the Scherer formula, the average crystalline size found to be 11.40 nm. Thermogravimetric study carried out for the precipitate before calcination to understand the thermo-chemical reactions happening during calcination. Finally, the photocatalytic activity was conducted against standard dye, methylene blue. The optimal concentration of 10-4M methylene blue solution found degraded gradually with help of SnO2 photocatalyst under UV irradiation. The absorption maximum was recorded for different interval of UV-irradiation.