Thermal behavior and comparative study on the visible light driven photocatalytic performance of SnS₂–ZnS nanocomposite against the degradation of anionic and cationic dyes

A comparative study performed on the photocatalytic performance of the SnS₂–ZnS nanocomposite against metanil yellow and rhodamine B dyes has been reported in this paper. Pure SnS₂, ZnS nanopowders and SnS₂–ZnS nanocomposite has been synthesized by a simple and cost-effective chemical method using tin(II) chloride, thiourea and zinc chloride as the precursor salts. Characterization techniques such as XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS, FTIR and PL were used to study the structure, surface morphology, chemical composition, functional groups and defects in the samples. Visible light irradiated photocatalytic tests confirmed that due to the enhanced separation efficiency of photoexcited electron–hole pairs the composite exhibits degradation efficiency better than pure SnS₂ and ZnS nanopowders against MY and RhB dyes. Also, the composite showed better degradation efficiency against metanil yellow than rhodamine B after 180 min visible light irradiation. Reusability tests confirmed that the SnS₂–ZnS composite photocatalyst is more stable and can be used for practical applicatons.