Activity SnO2/CuO nanocomposite toward photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue dye under solar light

This study describes a synthesis of (SnO2)/(CuO) nanocomposite with different concentrations by hydrothermal method. The technique of X-ray diffraction was used to examine the morphology, surface content, and structure of the materials, FESEM, FTIR and UV. Vis. The results reveal from XRD that the crystal structure of samples exhibits two phases comprising SnO2 structure that possesses tetragonal rutile and a tetragonal cell of metallic Sn, and CuO functioned as dopants in the SnO2 structure. FESEM images detect that the change of precursor concentration in the range of (0.1-0.05 M) influence the shape of the nanocomposite and has an amazing effect on the diameter size as-grown particles. The FTIR spectra’s presence of vibrational bands corresponding to CuO and SnO2 confirms that these materials exist in the nanostructure, showing that the binaries of metallic oxides have been integrated successfully. In UV-Vis., shifting causes absorption to increase with thickness. With rising thickness, the energy gap dropped from (2.6 to 2.1) eV and the pH effect decrease the band gap energy. The photodegradation property of (SnO2/CuO) nanocomposite was studied using methylene blue model pollutant, where SnO2/CuO (96% and 94.8% at 135 min.) was the max. values of efficiency of nanocomposite. Consequently, the catalysis of (SnO2/CuO) increased the photodegradation of MB. To determine how the interface affected the recombination, extensive research on electron-hole pair recombination at (n-p) junctions was done. Considering this, the results from the hydrothermal approach at various concentrations support the significant photocatalytic activity for the decolorization of methylene blue.