Fabrication of Ene-based Tin Oxide (GO-Sno2) Composites and Study of their Structural and Optical Absorption Properties

Abstract

Pollution of accessible and limited freshwater resources by organic pollutants especially dyes is a global problem, even as wastewater treatment continues to attract attention. Since traditional wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are not built to fully remediate or degrade these contaminants. Therefore, there’s need to develop effective wastewater treatment materials that can enhance the quality of water for aquatic and human life. This study synthesized ene oxide (GO) based catalyst (GO-SnO2) in the range of 1-4 wt.% GO, which can serve as an effective photocatalyst in waste water treatment. In order to improve its catalytic performance, SnO2 was functionalized with GO. After characterization, FTIR analyses revealed pertinent functional groups when scanned within the 400 cm−1 to 4000 cm−1 range. peaks corresponding to Sn–O and O–Sn–O, respectively, EDS analysis identified 77.84% Sn composition while the HRTEM and SEM showed that the addition of GO enhanced morphology. Additionally, BET tests confirmed an increase in surface area of SnO2 from 12.26 m2/g to 39.37 m2/g ensuring rich electron-hole pairs while the UV-Vis absorption shows that GO could optimize the optical absorption ability of GO/SnO2 nanocomposites. This phenomenon indicates that more solar energy can be absorbed by the the GO/SnO2 composites, which is beneficial for photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants. Therefore, these easy and affordable composites can be utilized to remediate contaminated water.