Synthesis and Investigation of Structural, Microstructural and Optical Properties of Iron-doped Sno2 Nanoparticles : Application in Photocatalysis

Abstract

Iron-doped tin dioxide nanoparticles Sn1-xFexO2 (0% ≤ x ≤ 10% ), were prepared by coprecipitation method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns indicate that Sn1-xFexO2 nanoparticles (NPs) crystallize in the tetragonal rutile-like structure. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) observations did not show more modification of the SnO2 morphology with Fe addition. All the results are consistent with the fact that Fe is strongly soluble in SnO2 host. The optical band gap energy decreased from 3.65 to 3.30 eV with increasing the iron doping concentration in the solution. Finally, the photocatalytic efficiency of Fe0.05Sn0.95O2 nanoparticles (NPs) was examined for the degradation of MB in aqueous solution under UV irradiation. It was found that smaller bandgap of Fe doped SnO2 photocatalyst resulted in a prominent increase in photocatalytic activity of nanoparticles against Methylene Blue (MB) under UV irradiaion.