Sonocatalytic degradation of organic pollutant by SnO2/MWCNT nanocomposite

Abstract

Developing highly active catalysts is central to sonocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants. In this work, efficient sonocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants is achieved using a novel sonocatalyst SnO2/multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) nanocomposite. By taking methylene blue (MB) as a model pollutant, almost complete degradation is obtained over the SnO2/MWCNT nanocomposite with high rate constant, while the bared SnO2 and the mechanical mixture of SnO2 and MWCNT show inferior sonocatalytic performance. The results indicate that the SnO2/MWCNT nanocomposite can efficiently utilize the light emitted during bubble collapse, promote separation of electron-hole pairs as well as transfer of electrons from SnO2 to MWCNT, due to the synergistic effect of SnO2 and MWCNT, thus leading to much higher sonocatalytic activity. The current work paves a way for preparing highly efficient sonocatalysts with carbon nanotube as an excellent electron sink.