Hydrothermal Synthesis of SnS₂ Faceted Nano Sheets and Their Visible Light Driven Photocatalytic Performance

Highly crystalline SnS₂ nano sheets were synthesized by single step hydrothermal reaction technique without using any surfactant. The resultant product was characterized using various spectroscopic techniques. XRD confirms the formation of crystalline hexagonal phase of SnS₂ with (101) and (110) preferred orientations. FESEM analysis reveales the formation of hexagonal plates having size in the range of 0.5 to 1 μm with thickness of the plates around 10–20 nm. These hexagonal plates are oriented in such a way that they form micron sized rose flower like structure. TEM analysis confirms the formation of uniform sized SnS₂ hexagonal plates. The distinct hexagonal ring in SAED pattern substantiates formation of crystalline hexagonal structure. The Diffuse reflactance spectrum (DRS) displayed the absorption edge around 575 nm corresponding to the band gap value of 2.15 eV. Photocatalytic activity of the resultant SnS₂ was studied by observing the degradation of aqueous methylene blue (MB) dye under visible light irradiation. The rate constants observed for photocatalytic MB degradation are 17.9 × 10^–3, 3.6 × 10^–3 and 2.2 × 10^–3 min^–1 using SnS₂, P-25 Degussa TiO₂ and anatase TiO₂, respectively. The study revealed that the synthesized SnS₂ nanoparticles have better photocatalytic activity than that of P-25 Degussa TiO₂ towards MB degradation.