Synthesis and characterization of SnO/rGO nanocomposite for an efficient photocatalytic degradation of pharmaceutical pollutant: Kinetics, mechanism and recyclability.

The SnO and SnO/rGO nanostructures were successfully synthesized using the facile hydrothermal synthesis technique. The prepared nanostructures were well studied using different techniques such as XRD, XPS, UV-DRS, FT-IR, EDX, SEM and HR-TEM analysis. The crystalline nature of SnO and SnO/rGO was confirmed by the XRD technique. The formation of highly pure SnO and SnO/rGO nanostructures was confirmed by EDX analysis. The morphological results show the good agglomeration of several spherical nanoparticles. The optical properties were studied through the UV-DRS technique and the bandgap energies of SnO and SnO/rGO are estimated to be 3.12 eV and 2.71 eV, respectively. The photocatalytic degradation percentage in presence of SnO and SnO/rGO against RhB was found to be 96% and 98%, respectively. The degradation of TTC molecules was estimated as 90% and 88% with SnO/rGO and SnO, respectively. The degradation of both RhB and TTC molecules was well suited with the pseudo-first-order kinetics. The results of successive experiments clearly show the enhancement in the photocatalytic properties in the SnO/rGO nanostructures.