Abstract
This study reports the investigation of hydrothermally fabricated LaNdZr2O7, SnSe and LaNdZr2O7/SnSe nano composite as an advanced material for bi-functional applications. All the synthesized materials were characterize using different approaches like X-ray photoelectron microscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and UV-visible spectroscopy to confirm structural, morphological and optical properties, respectively. To confirm the electrocatalytic performance, galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD), the cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were employed. Among all, the nano composite exhibited enhanced specific capacitance(Csp) of 720 F g(-1) at a current density of 0.1 A g(-1) in 0.1 M KOH solution. The CV studies revealed that the LaNdZr2O7/SnSe electrode showed 98% retention after 20,000 cycles indicating its excellent stability. Moreover, solar light harvesting with nanocrystalline LaNdZr2O7/SnSe semiconductor for degradation of Congo red (CR) as a target dye is also explored. The maximum degradation efficiency of CR reached about 97% after 120 min due to energy band gap well alignment leads to formation of higher superoxide radicals. These findings suggest that our prepared nanocomposite seem to be feasible as electrode material for supercapacitor application as well as for visible light induced photocatalytic degradation of CR.