Efficient removal of organic pollutants in wastewater using tin oxide nanospheres under photoirradiation

Abstract

Mandeep Kaur, Mamta Belwal, Aakriti Sharma, Ashish Kumar and Venkataraman Vishwanathan

The maximum toxic pollutants discharged by the industrial and domestic wastewater effluents are the pathogens and organic chemicals. Recently, mesoporous tin oxide (SnO2) nanospheres have gained attention as a suitable material in photodegrdation of poisonous pollutants like methylene blue (MB) and chlorobenzene (CB) when exposed to Ultraviolet and Visible irradiation. In this study, a single step synthesis of SnO2 nanospheres with large surface area (104 m2g−1) was prepared from mixing two different types of surfactants. Pertinent physico-chemical characterisation techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and N2 adsorption–desorption measurements were used to get an insight into the structural details of the freshly prepared SnO2 nanospheres. Results showed that SnO2 samples were spherical in shape and with an average size of 2-5 nm. According to the pseudo 1st order kinetic study, a rate constant (k) of 0.02693 min−1 and 0.02136 min−1 for methylene blue (MB) and 0.2385 and 0.2023 for chlorobenzene (CB) were observed under UV and visible irradiation, respectively. High photoactivity of SnO2 nanospheres may be ascribed to its reduced crystalline size and high surface area. Also, the SnO2 nanospheres showed high response, selectivity, and good recovery rate towards degradation.

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