Green energy induced photocatalytic decomposition of methylene blue and crystal violet dyes by strontium doped tin oxide nanoparticles and its antibacterial activity

Sunlight driven strontium doped tin oxide (SnO2) photocatalyst was synthesized with different strontium (Sr) concentrations by the simplest sol-gel methodology. The XRD diffractogram findings revealed the decrement in the average crystallite size from 13 nm to 8 nm and shifting of diffraction peaks towards lower diffraction angle signifies the incorporation of Sr2+ ions in the host lattice sites. Optical studies unveiled the reduction in the energy bandgap values with respect to doping concentration i.e. 2.94 eV for pristine SnO2 to 2.43 eV for 1.5% Sr:SnO2. The photocatalytic measurements showed that the action of Sr doped SnO2 nanoparticles (1.5%) on methylene blue (MB) and crystal violet (CV) dyes exhibited momentous photocatalytic performance of about 83.3% in 100 minutes and 67.8% in 150 minutes under natural sunlight. Additionally, an efficient antibacterial activity of Sr doped SnO2 nanoparticles (at 1.5% doping) was estimated against a gram negative bacteria E. Coli. [Display omitted] •Sr doped SnO2 nanoparticles exhibited momentous photocatalytic decomposition performance against methylene blue (MB) and crystal violet (CV) dyes under natural sunlight.•The enhanced antibacterial activity of the Sr doped SnO2 nanoparticles is ascribed due to cell wall dysfunction caused by excessive oxidative stress released by ROS species and finally causing cell death