Synthesis, characterization and photocatalytic performance of modified ZnO nanoparticles with SnO₂ nanoparticles

We synthesize the ZnO- SnO 2 hybrid with different amount of SnO 2 nanoparticles and study the photocatalytic performance of them for photocatalytic oxidation of methyl orange (MO) according to the statistical analysis for the first time. The ZnO-SnO 2 hybrids have been characterized by XRD, FTIR, TEM and UV–vis spectroscopy. XRD results reveal that the crystalline structure of SnO 2 with tetragonal structure and ZnO with hexagonal wurtzite structure is formed in the all synthesized hybrids. FTIR analysis emphasizes the existence of ZnO and SnO 2 nanoparticles in the all synthesized samples. TEM results show that the ZnO nanoparticles are modified using SnO 2 nanoparticles. The results of UV–vis spectrophotometer reveal that the photocatalytic degradation of MO increases with increasing amount of SnO 2 nanoparticles in the hybrid. Meanwhile, weight fraction and irradiation of UV dependence study also depict that the photocatalytic degradation of MO enhance with time and weight fraction of hybrid. The statistical analysis results reveal that the basic parameters and their interaction have a reasonable influence on the photocatalytic activity of the both hybrids.