Soft Chemical Fabrication and Material Characterization of Mn Doped SnO2 Ceramic Nanostructures for Application in Photocatalysis

Abstract

In this research work, a simple soft chemical synthesis route is adopted to synthesize (Sn_1-xMn_xO_2-δ; where x=0, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15 and 0.20) based ceramic nanoparticles.  The prepared nanoparticles were characterized to X-ray diffraction (XRD), FTIR spectroscopy, particle size analysis, SEM, EDAX, UV and photoluminescence (PL) studies.   From XRD, the crystalline geometry of ceramic nanoparticles was found to be tetragonal. FTIR data have shown a broad absorption band at a wavelength of ~ 600 cm^-1 due to M-O stretching vibration mode. The ceramic nanoparticles were found to be in the range of 704 to 1258 nm.  Smaller grains (<100 nm) along-with few bulky grains were reported by SEM. The absorption of ceramic particles was found maximum at 283 nm as per UV spectra. PL spectra exhibited a strong peak at 432 nm. The photocatalysis was studied to degrade methylene blue dye present in water sample using the ceramic nanoparticles under UV, visible and sun lights. Among the samples studied, Sn_0.95Mn_0.05O_2-δ exhibited better photocatalytic degradation behavior (84.8%) under visible light after 120 minutes of irradiation.