Fabrication of novel surface plasmon resonance induced visible light driven iridium decorated SnO2 nanorods for degradation of organic contaminants

Highlights: • Iridium/SnO₂ nanocomposites have been prepared via simple hydrothermal method. • The metallic Iridium nanoparticles showed surface plasmon resonance effect. • Iridium nanoparticles also generate the intense local electromagnetic field. • and OH are played a predominant role in the photocatalytic degradation process. • Iridium/SnO₂ catalyst is a promising new material for environmental applications. Novel visible light driven iridium (Ir) nanoparticles decorated SnO₂ nanorods photocatalyst were synthesized via facile hydrothermal strategy. The effect of iridium loading on the SnO₂ phase, morphology and optical properties of the nanocomposites was investigated by standard spectroscopy and microscopy techniques. Under visible light, Ir/SnO₂ (3%) nanocomposite displayed much higher photocatalytic activity and decomposed more than 97% of crystal violet and methylene blue dyes after 60 min irradiation. The photocatalytic activity was highly dependent on the loading content of Ir because of the electron acceptor role played by Ir NPs and thus promoting the separation of electron-hole pairs. The enhanced photocatalytic activity could be due to the efficient electrons transfer from the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect of metallic Ir to SnO₂ nanorods which can, in turn, extend the lifetime of the charge carriers. Based on the experimental results, a possible degradation mechanism was also elucidated using radical scavengers, which indicates that the OH and O₂⁻ play a crucial role in photodegradation reaction.