Facile synthesis of SnO2 2D nanoflakes for ultrasound-assisted photodegradation of tetracycline hydrochloride

The present study demonstrates the facile synthesis of SnO 2 (tin oxide) 2D nanoflakes (2-dimensional) for sonophotocatalytic tetracycline hydrochloride (TcH) degradation. TcH is known to be widely used antibiotic, but even minute concentrations of it make the aqueous environment unsafe for living beings. As-synthesized SnO 2 was thoroughly characterized to reveal its morphology, crystal structure and other intrinsic properties. SnO 2 2D nanoflakes possessed excellent photocatalytic TcH degradation under visible light. Preliminary investigation inferred that sonophotocatalytic mode of TcH degradation was efficient over other modes with respect to degradation efficiencies for 20 mg L −1 TcH and 20 mg of SnO 2 . The optimum degradation of TcH was observed to be 88.82% in 135 min under LED (9 W, 220 V) irradiation with 30 mg of SnO 2 dosage and 40 kHz ultrasound. The degradation dynamics complied with pseudo-first-order kinetics where the kinetic rate constant ( k ) was 0.02 min −1 . Hence, SnO 2 2D nanoflakes were promising in mineralization of the biotoxin (TcH) in aqueous environments that accent its application to treat real-time water and wastewater. Graphic abstract