Surfactant-assisted hydrothermally synthesized novel TiO2/SnS@Pd nano-composite: structural, morphological and photocatalytic activity

Abstract

To meet the increasing demand of energy and to conquer the waste water problems, fabrication of visibly active semiconductor materials is demand of the present world. In this paper, we have synthesized the surfactant-assisted novel TiO2/SnS@Pd by adopting the energy-efficient hydrothermal approach and the photocatalytic activity of the synthesized composites were tested by taking the Rhodamine B (RhB) as the model pollutant. The structural, optical, morphological and compositional properties were elaborated using the various characterization techniques. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscope were used to find out the formation of ternary composites. The formation of heterojunction and red shift in the absorption of the ternary composite were the rationale behind the highest photocatalytic activity of sample containing the 4% SnS and 2% Pd for the removal of RhB. The complete removal of pollutant was achieved only in 30 min using the ternary composite. It was also found that the binary samples exhibited the maximum removal of dye in the basic medium while the ternary composite exhibited the maximum removal of dye in neutral medium because of leaching of Pd in alkaline medium. The role of active species towards the degradation of dye was also studied. The synthesized materials are highly beneficial for the fabrication or development of cost-effective device for the waste water treatment.