posted on 2020-03-18, 18:04authored byManzar Sohail, Nadeem Baig, Muhammad Sher, Rabia Jamil, Muhammad Altaf, Sultan Akhtar, Muhammad Sharif
Herein,
we report the expedient synthesis of new nanocomposite
Sn0.39Ti0.61O2·TiO2 flakes using simple sol–gel and calcination methods. In order
to prepare this material, first, we generated a polymeric gel using
cost-effective and easily accessible precursors such as SnCl4, titanium isopropoxide, and tetrahydrofuran (THF). A small amount
of triflic acid was used to initiate THF polymerization. The calcination
of the resulting gel at 500 °C produced a Sn–Ti bimetallic
nanocomposite. This newly synthesized Sn0.39Ti0.61O2·TiO2 was characterized by X-ray diffraction
(XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), scanning electron
microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and UV–visible
spectroscopy. The photoelectrochemical (PEC) studies were performed
for the first time using Sn0.39Ti0.61O2·TiO2 coated over fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO)
under simulated 1 sun solar radiation. The chronoamperometric study
of the Sn0.39Ti0.61O2·TiO2/FTO revealed the repeatable and substantially higher photocurrent
for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) when compared to only TiO2. Moreover, the synthesized material exhibited high stability
both in the presence and absence of light. The photocatalytic studies
suggested that the sol–gel-synthesized Sn0.39Ti0.61O2·TiO2 can be efficiently used
as a photoanode in the water-splitting reaction.