Hydrothermal synthesis of CoSnO3 nanocubes-incorporated graphitic carbon nitride for the efficient photodegradation of organic dye and antibiotic drug

Abstract

In this work, an eco-friendly, low-cost, facile synthesis of CoSnO3/g-C3N4 using an in-situ hydrothermal method by incorporating graphitic carbon nanosheets. In as-prepared nanocomposite, the CoSnO3 nano cubes strongly attached to graphitic carbon nanosheets due to the ionic interaction which leads to improved catalytic activity, conductivity and stability. The as-synthesized nanocomposite was characterized by various spectral, structural and optical studies and it was applied for the photocatalytic degradation of organic dye-methylene blue (MB) and antibiotic drug-norfloxacin (NOR). From DRS-UV analysis, CoSnO3 exhibit a bandgap of 2.93 eV, g-C3N4 and CoSnO3/g-C3N4 has 2.84 eV and 1.95 eV, respectively. The nanocomposite demonstrates admirable degradation efficiency of 95.24 % for Methylene blue within 50-min and 95.99 % for Norfloxacin within a 70-min period under visible-light active conditions and surpass the performance of pure CoSnO3 and g-C3N4 due to the synergetic acceleration of heterojunction. The results have demonstrated that the CoSnO3/g-C3N4 nanocomposite exhibits significant potential as a photocatalyst for the degrading NOR antibiotic and MB dye. Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis identified four potential routes for the degradation intermediates of norfloxacin. Moreover, the nanocomposite material exhibits long term stability, durability and good bio comfortability.