Impact of metal doping and non metal loading on the photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants using tin dioxide catalyst under sunlight irradiation

•Ni doped SnO2 loaded on CCAC composite was prepared.•The average crystallite size and band gap is reduced upon NS3/CCAC composite sample.•Maximum charge separation attained for NS3/CCAC.•MB dye was efficiently removed using NS3/CCAC composite sample. The goal of this study is to prepare nickel (Ni) doped tin dioxide-loaded activated carbon composite as a catalyst for the removal of dye. Tin dioxide with various (0.050, 0.075, and 0.10 M) Ni doping concentrations and Ni: SnO2/CCAC (corn cob activated carbon) composite was synthesized by the chemical precipitation method and labeled as NS1, NS2, NS3, and NS3/CCAC. XRD spectra revealed that the particle size in NS3/CCAC decreased (12.81 nm) as the NS3 and CCAC content. The absorption spectra reveal that the band gap in NS3/CCAC was reduced (3.50 eV) by the Ni-doping and CCAC-loading. We also used photodegradation of methylene blue (MB) in the presence of sunshine to examine the photocatalytic performance of the NS3/CCAC composite. The NS3/CCAC composite exhibited higher photocatalytic efficiency in comparison to the other samples. The high photodegradation performance (92.30 %) of the composite sample was due to its less average crystallite size, which increased the specific surface area (306.01 m2/g), decreased band gap, and reduced the electron–hole recombination rate resulting in improved photocatalytic efficiency. The findings reported here could benefit the NS3/CCAC photocatalysts for the removal of organic pollutants.