Cost-effective microreactors for the synthesis of SnS nanoparticles and inline photocatalytic degradation of azo dyes

Abstract

A simple wire-assisted cost-effective technique along with a laser assisted rapid microfabrication technique was used for the fabrication of microfluidic reactors to synthesize SnS nanoparticles and study their inline photocatalytic response. The SnS nanoparticles with an average size of 17 nm and optical band gap of 1.25 eV were synthesized using a PDMS based microreactor with a channel diameter of 450 µm. The less expensive PMMA based microreactor coated with SnS nanoparticles was employed in the photocatalytic degradation of EBT dye flowing at the rate of 50 µL/min providing ∼ 75 % instantaneous degradation at a catalyst loading of 30 mg.