Chemical fabrication, structural characterization and photocatalytic water splitting application of Sr-doped SnO₂nanoparticles

Semiconductor photocatalysis has gained considerable attention in recent years due to their enabling nature to convert solar energy into fuels of renewable hydrocarbon. However, many of them suffer from some drawbacks like the inability to visible light irradiation and wide band gaps. Herein, we have synthesized monophasic strontium (Sr) doped SnO2 nanoparticles by a cost-effective and environmental friendly hydrothermal method. As-synthesized nanoparticles showed rutile crystalline structure with irregular and rough cubical shape and no other elemental impurities. Sr-doped SnO2 nanoparticles show a constant decrease in bandgap with increasing dopant concentration, which is estimated for excellent photocatalytic activity. The photocatalytic water splitting of as-prepared Sr-doped SnO2 nanoparticles for H2 generation shows a large influence of the increasing dopant concentration related to the narrowing bandgap on H2 generation rate. Hence, the tunable bandgap with adjusted dopant concentration indicates that band gap tuning through doping for produced nanostructures may open up a new opportunities for photocatalytic and other optoelectronic applications.