Fabrication of TiO(2)@SnS(2) core-shell nanocomposites via a thermal decomposition approach for sunlight-driven photodegradation of crystal violet.

In the current study, TiO(2)@SnS(2) core-shell nanocomposites were prepared via a facile thermal decomposition method. The synthesis consists of thermal decomposition of tin chloride pentahydrate and thiourea in the presence of NaOH-modified TiO(2) microspheres in diphenyl ether (DPE) at ∼200 °C in air. The synthesized TiO(2)@SnS(2) core-shell nanocomposites were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, TGA, FESEM, TEM, EDXA, UV-DRS, PL and XPS. The XRD results indicate the presence of both TiO(2) and SnS(2) phases in the core-shell nanocomposites. FESEM, TEM and EDX analyses results confirm uniform coating of SnS(2) nanoparticles on the surface modified TiO(2) microspheres. XPS analysis results confirm the presence of Sn(4+), Ti(4+), O(2-) and S(2-) in the TiO(2)@SnS(2) nanocomposites. After their characterization, the TiO(2)@SnS(2) core-shell nanocomposites were explored for their catalytic activity towards the photodegradation of a toxic dye (crystal violet (CV)) in an aqueous solution under sunlight. The photodegradation efficiency of TiO(2)@SnS(2) core-shell nanocomposites is better than that of TiO(2) microspheres, SnS(2) nanoparticles and other metal sulfide nanoparticles/nanocomposites reported in the literature.