An effective photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue with ZnO/SnO2 – CeO2/CuO quaternary nanocomposite driven by visible light irradiation

[Display omitted] •The energetic ZnO/SnO2/CeO2/CuO photocatalyst prepared through shallow precipitation method.•Photocatalytic activity of ZSCC catalyst was investigated against methylene blue dye.•The stability of ZSCC quaternary catalyst has reduced 8 % than the original activity of the primary cycle.•Ingenious ZSCC catalyst was better degradation activity due to effective separation of e− and h+. Semiconductor photocatalysts based on quaternary materials are being developed to reduce organic pollution in wastewater. In this paper, shallow chemical precipitation is used to synthesize ZnO-SnO2 / CeO2-CuO (ZSCC) quaternary photocatalysts. The prepared ZSCC photocatalyst was subjected to various characterization techniques, such as PXRD, UV–vis, FTIR, FESEM, TEM, and EDAX. Under visible light illumination for 120 min, methylene blue (MB) dye was used to evaluate ZSCC nanocomposite and bare ZnO, SnO2, CeO2 and CuO catalysts. It was discovered that the synergistic effect of metal oxide constituents in the ZSCC nanocomposite outperformed bare catalysts against MB dye. After four consecutive recycling cycles, the ZSCC quaternary catalyst maintained excellent degradation capabilities of MB dye. In spite of this, XRD and FESEM analysis confirmed the formation of tetra-phase nanocomposites. As shown by the FESEM analysis, ZnO formed rice-like structures, SnO2 displayed rod-like structures, CeO2 had hexagonal structures, and CuO formed spheres. In the visible region, the optical absorption of ZSCC nanocomposite becomes redshifted. The prepared ZSCC composite exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity (91.03%) compared to other bare catalysts. In this study, ZnO, SnO2, CeO2 and CuO were exposed at 78%, 80%, 84%, and 88% respectively, for degradation efficacy. According to this theory, photocharge carriers recombine rapidly. In this paper, we demonstrate the real-life electron-hole pair transition mechanism in ZSCC quaternary composites.