Ionic liquid-assisted synthesis, characterization and photocatalytic properties of SnO microflowers with nanosheet subunits

In this study, simple ionic liquid-assisted preparation of SnO microflowers with nanosheet subunits under reflux condition without calcination were described. Samples were synthesized using 1-pentyl- 3-methylimidazolium bromide, [pmim]Br, as an ionic liquid in different molar ratio, sodium hydroxide and Tin(II) chloride. The results show that SnO with high purity and uniform size distribution was obtained using 1:4:4 molar ratios of SnCl2/NaOH/IL by simple reflux method and the ionic liquid only acts as a suitable template. The characterization of the products was carried out by FT-IR, X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS) and DRS techniques. Photodegradation of Remazol Black B (RBB) from the aqueous solution was investigated by SnO nanosheets (93.48% dye removal). The rate of degradation of RBB in the presence of SnO is distinctive by the pseudo-first-order kinetic model (R2 > 0.79).