Importance of Clean Surfaces on the Catalyst: SnS2 Nanorings for Environmental Remediation

The focus of the work is the synthesis of SnS2 nanomaterials with (peg-SnS2NF) and without (sf-SnS2NR) the involvement of the organic template and the comparative study of their catalytic activities. The synthesis of these materials was achieved in a single-step procedure aided by hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS). These nanoparticles were subjected to X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and UV–vis spectroscopy analyses to investigate their structural, topographical, surface, and optical properties. The present work suggests that the surfactant-free SnS2 nanoring (sf-SnS2NR) catalyst has lower surface area compared to the poly­(ethylene glycol)-stabilized SnS2 nanoflower (peg-SnS2NF) catalyst but shows high activity under visible light for the photoreduction of Cr­(VI) and the photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes. The work exposed the importance of the clean surfaces on the catalyst and is expected to have a high impact on the photocatalytic activity of the SnS2 nanomaterial. The study also endorses the utility of the HMDS-assisted synthetic method for the production of multifunctional semiconductor tin disulfide nanomaterials with multiple potential applications.