Photocatalytic degradation of Congo red dye in the presence of nanostructured zinc stannate

With growing industrialization and population, environmental contamination caused by organic pollutants is being one of the overwhelming problems all over the world. However, its horrible adverse effects have appeared in the shape of environmental collapse. The domestic use and industrial activity both produce a large amount of wastewater, which then disposed into natural channels leading to a high pollution risk. A small quantity of polluted water is sufficient to contaminate much greater capacity of clean water. Synthetic dyes are toxic refractory chemicals, which generate murky color to the water and are hazardous to the environment. The dyes were detected in a dissolved state in wastewater. Most of these dyes are toxic and carcinogenic in nature. One must note down that, a wide spectrum of compound can transform themselves into potentially dangerous substances during the water treatment process. A non-biodegradable pollutant present in wastewater is a point of major serious pain to the researchers in the world [1,2]. Recently, zinc stannate (ZnSnO3) has attracted considerable attention due to its potential applications in the fields of photo-electrochemical device, photocatalyst, gas sensor, and electrical nanodevice. Nowadays, ZnSnO3 micro- and nanostructures with various morphologies have been synthesized by various synthesis routes, including thermal evaporation, co-precipitation method, and hydrothermal synthesis [3-5]. Oxidation by Fenton reactions a proven and economically feasible process for destruction of a variety of hazardous pollutants in wastewater. In this paper, we report a simple co-precipitation synthesis method for a light-induced heterogeneous oxide photocatalyst, ZnSnO3. The catalyst was characterized by various investigative techniques, like Infrared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis to carry out structural and spectroscopic properties of the photocatalyst. The visible light mediated degradation of Congo red dye was achieved by using ZnSnO3. Effects of various experimental parameters of the oxidation reaction of the dye were investigated. The studied parameters were the contact time, the catalyst mass, and the dye concentration. The optimum conditions had been determined, and it was found that efficiency of degradation obtained was about 90%. The main advantage of photocatalytic is that, the process takes place at ambient temperature without overpressure. The oxygen used for oxidation can be directly obtained from atmosphere