paper

Synthesis of sub-5 nm Co-doped SnO nanoparticles and their structural, microstructural, optical and photocatalytic properties

arXiv:1312.2605 · doi:10.1016/j.matchemphys.2014.05.032

Abstract

A swift chemical route to synthesize Co-doped SnO nanopowders is described. Pure and highly stable SnCoO (0 x 0.15) crystalline nanoparticles were synthesized, with mean grain sizes < 5 nm and the dopant element homogeneously distributed in substitutional sites of the SnO matrix. The UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectra of the SnCoO samples reveal red shifts, the optical bandgap energies decreasing with increasing Co concentration. The Urbach energies of the samples were calculated and correlated with their bandgap energies. The photocatalytic activity of the SnCoO samples was investigated for the 4-hydroxylbenzoic acid (4-HBA) degradation process. A complete photodegradation of a 10 ppm 4-HBA solution was achieved using 0.02% (w/w) of SnCoO nanoparticles in 60 min of irradiation.

29 pages, 2 tables, 10 figures

References in corpus (2)