Effect of Low-Doping Concentration on Silver-Doped SnO2 and its Photocatalytic Applications

Stannic Oxide (SnO2) is in the class of metal oxide semiconductors, which is widely employed in a series of applications because of its excellent electrical and optical properties. In this study, we reported the synthesis of undoped and silver (Ag) doped SnO2 via a simple coprecipitation technique to study the photocatalytic activities of Ag/SnO2. Different characterization techniques, such as XRD, SEM, EDX, FTIR, RAMAN, and DRS were used to study the effect of the doping concentration of Ag on the structural, morphological, compositional, and optical properties of SnO2. The XRD spectrum showed the tetragonal structure of SnO2 and Ag/SnO2. The SEM micrographs show the irregular distribution of particles with different shapes and sizes. The EDX results show the incorporation of the Ag element into SnO2. The optical property shows narrowed bandgap energy with Ag content. The photocatalytic activity of the samples was studied by the photocatalytic degradation of Methylene Blue (MB) dye. The photocatalytic activity results reveal that 1wt% of Ag/SnO2 has a better photocatalytic performance of 97.63% when compared to undoped SnO2.