Investigating the Effect of Dwell Time on the Physical Properties of Nano-sized Tin dioxide (SnO2) Prepared Through a Continuous Microwave Flow Process

Tin dioxide (SnO2) is a well-known catalytic material used to catalyze different organic dyes and gas sensors. Similarly, it is also considered a good sensing and optoelectronic material. In this work, SnO2 has been synthesized using a microwave-assisted continuous flow method. The effect of dwell time was utilized to study its effects on the physical properties of SnO2. X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Bruner Emmit-Teller (BET) techniques were used to characterize the synthesized SnO2. UV-Visible spectroscopy technique was employed to calculate the energy bandgap, which exhibited a decrease in the energy bandgap from 3.44 to 3.33 eV on increasing the dwell time. XRD results exhibited an increase in the degree of crystallinity from 56 to 63% and a reduction in the particle size from 3.74 to 2.75 nm. Where, BET study revealed a shrinkage in the surface area from 159 to 154 m2g- 1. Photoluminescence (PL) study was conducted to investigate the surface defects. Photocatalytic efficiency of the SnO2 was probed against the photodegradation of methylene blue dye and this study revealed that SnO2 is a good photocatalytic material.