Nanoscale LaDySn₂O₇/SnSe Composite for Visible-light Driven Photoreduction of CO₂ to Methane and for Monoazo Dyes Photodegradation

Photoactive materials provide a greener way to convert solar radiation into chemical energy, fuels and for the photodegradation of organic pollutants. We show here nanostructured LaDySn₂O₇/SnSe composite that effectively harvests in the visible-spectrum and performs actively for CO₂ reduction and photodegradation of foron blue (FB) dye. Various spectroscopic methods and characterization techniques are employed to explore the structural, morphological, compositional, surface area, optical properties, oxidation states of the elements and valence band position. The optical properties of SnSe revealed their action as photosensitizers for stannate pyrochlore LaDySn₂O₇ under visible–light irradiation. Admirable photoreduction efficiency for CO₂ conversion into methane was achieved for composites relative to individual catalysts. They also show superior photocatalytic degradation > 98.8% for foron blue dye. Whereas, individual photocatalyst LaDySn₂O₇ is photo-insensitive in the visible region due to large band gap and the cocatalyst (SnSe) exhibited photodegradation up to 15.5%. No observable deactivation of LaDySn₂O₇/SnSe was recorded after the five consecutive recycles runs for photodegradation of foron blue dye.