Importance of Clean Surfaces on the Catalyst: SnS2 Nanorings for Environmental Remediation

Abstract

The focus of the work is the synthesis of SnS2 nanomaterials with (peg-SnS2NF) and without (sf-SnS2NR) the involvement of the organic template and the comparative study of their catalytic activities. The synthesis of these materials was achieved in a single-step procedure aided by hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS). These nanoparticles were subjected to X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and UV-vis spectroscopy analyses to investigate their structural, topographical, surface, and optical properties. The present work suggests that the surfactant-free SnS2 nanoring (sf-SnS2NR) catalyst has lower surface area compared to the poly(ethylene glycol)-stabilized SnS2 nanoflower (peg-SnS2NF) catalyst but shows high activity under visible light for the photoreduction of Cr(VI) and the photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes. The work exposed the importance of the clean surfaces on the catalyst and is expected to have a high impact on the photocatalytic activity of the SnS2 nanomaterial. The study also endorses the utility of the HMDS-assisted synthetic method for the production of multifunctional semiconductor tin disulfide nanomaterials with multiple potential applications.