Abstract
This paper explains the preparation of SnO2-Sb2O3 composite catalyst by solid state reaction process, and posteriorly employs as an alternative and promising photocatalyst for Brilliant Green (BG) dye degradation under solar irradiation. SnO2 and Sb2O3 composite samples with varying proportions of SnO2 and Sb2O3 were created, with 2–5 wt% SnO2 added to the Sb2O3 sample. The synthesized samples were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS) and UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UVDRS). The results showed that the 3% SnO2-Sb2O3 sample presented the higher catalytic activity compared to the others, besides SnO2 and Sb2O3 alone, reaching ~90% of decolonization and ~87% of COD removal at 180 min. This remarkable photocatalytic activity may be associated to its favorable band gap energy. Kinetic data fitted well with pseudo-first-order kinetic model. Therefore, the prepared SnO2-Sb2O3 composite in this work can be considered as an effective photocatalyst for elimination of colored-contaminants, such as BG dye, from wastewater.
•Preparation of SnO2-Sb2O3 composite and application as a potential photocatalyst.•SnO2-Sb2O3 exhibited remarkable degradation efficiency of Brilliant green under solar irradiation.•SnO2-Sb2O3 can be employed as a promising photocatalyst to treat dye-containing wastewaters.