Synergistic effects of composite partnering between fluorine doped tin oxide and bio-derived activated carbon for enhanced photocatalytic dye detoxification

Abstract

In recent decades, water contamination resulting from the discharge of industrial organic dye wastes becomes a serious threat to the environment, requiring urgent remedy. In this state of affairs, the present study focuses on the modification of SnO₂ by adding fluorine as dopant and plantain flower waste derived activated carbon (PFAC) as composite partner so as to make the material suitable for effective dye detoxification. The nanocomposite was synthesized via soft chemical method and characterized using XRD, FTIR, UV–Vis, SEM, EDAX, Hall effect and XPS studies. The synthesized nanocomposite SnO₂:F/PFAC effectively degrades methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO) dyes under visible light. The SnO₂:F/PFAC nanocomposite shows significant higher photocatalytic efficiency of 98.8 % against MB and 92.2 % against MO dye. The heterojunction formation between the composite partners SnO₂:F and PFAC helps for harvesting an enhanced amount of visible light and for reducing the charge recombination rate. The stability test showed that the nanocomposite SnO₂:F/PFAC retains its performance even in the fifth cycle without appreciable loss in efficiency. In addition to the photocatalytic ability, the electrochemical property of the nanocomposite was also studied. The results showed that the nanocomposite SnO₂:F/PFAC can be a potential candidate for photocatalytic dye degradation and electrochemical applications.