Synthesis and enhanced photocatalytic activity of tin oxide nanoparticles coated on multi-walled carbon nanotube

Highlights: → SnO2 nanoparticles were uniformly deposited on carbon nanotubes. → MWNT@SnO2 showed excellent photocatalytic activity. → The quenched PL proved the existence of electron transfer between SnO2 and MWNT. -- Abstract: A nanocomposite of SnO2 nanoparticles coated on multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT@SnO2) was synthesized and characterized by thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, nitrogen physisorption measurements, photoluminescence. The results show that the SnO2 nanoparticles with a narrow size of 4 nm are uniformly deposited on MWNT. The photocatalytic activity of the nanocomposite was studied using methyl orange as a model organic pollutant. MWNT@SnO2 exhibits much higher photocatalytic activity than that of commercial TiO2 (P-25). The promotion is mainly contributed from electron transfer between SnO2 and MWNT.