Mesoporous polyaniline/SnO2 nanospheres for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of bio-staining fluorescent dye from an aqueous environment

[Display omitted] •Fabrication of novel photocatalyst of PANI/SnO2 nanocomposite by sol-gel method.•PANI/SnO2 nanocomposite was used for degradation of cationic dye from water.•The nanocomposite creates an open structure with various mesoporous cavities.•Superior photocatalytic reactivity attributed to the ability of electron transfer.•The photodegradation showed functionality in terms of reversibility and stability. Tin oxide (SnO2) is a potential photocatalyst that exhibits a considerable reactivity in degradation of various organic pollutants. The incorporation of polyaniline as a conjugated conducting polymer on the surface of SnO2 allows for increasing the surface area, textural parameters, and the number of active sites on the photo catalyst surface. In this research work, pure SnO2 and mesoporous polyaniline/SnO2 (PANI/SnO2) nanoparticles were prepared via cost-effective sol-gel route using chitosan as structure directing agent. The structure features of PANI/SnO2 nanocomposite were successfully investigated. The obtained results describe the effective coating on the SnO2 surface homogeneously which allows for enhancing the photocatalytic response toward degradation of rhodamine B dye (RhB). The degradation percentage of RhB dye using SnO2 nanosphere and PANI/SnO2 nanocomposite are 26% and 86% respectively under the same reaction conditions. Moreover, the PANI/SnO2 nanocomposite enhance the photocatalytic response to visible region and reducing the recombination of photo induced electron–hole couples. The extent of degradation was monitored by UV–Vis spectrophotometer and further validated by chemical oxygen demand (COD) analyses to prove a destruction of the dye molecules along with color removal. Electron conduction band and superoxide radicals are considered the main reactive species that responsible for dye degradation over PANI/SnO2 nanoparticles. The superior photocatalytic reactivity of the designed PANI/SnO2 photocatalyst was attributed to the greater ability of electron transfer from polyaniline to tin oxide conduction band. The developed nanocomposite has long-term regeneration times and high stability for photocatalytic degradation of bio-staining fluorescent dye from an aqueous environment.