Design of efficient solar photocatalytic system for hydrogen production and degradation of environmental pollutant

Here, we have designed an efficient multipurpose photocatalytic system based on iron-doped tin oxide (Fe-SnO2) which exhibited excellent catalytic activity toward dyes degradation and hydrogen production. The synthesized photocatalyst was characterized using different spectroscopic techniques. Fe-SnO2 was tested in degradation of different dyes i.e., congo red (CR), acridine orange (ArO) and methyl orange (MO) and among these dyes, Fe-SnO2 was more efficient and selective toward CR which was degraded more than 95% in 30 min. Further, the catalytic efficiency of Fe-SnO2 was also evaluated toward photocatalytic hydrogen generation from aqueous solutions of methanol, ethanol, propanol, potassium hydroxide and Na2S + Na2SO3, where Fe-SnO2 displayed high catalytic activity toward hydrogen generation from methanol solution under sunlight. Moreover, the catalytic activity of Fe-SnO2 toward CR degradation and hydrogen production was optimized by using different combinations of operating conditions and no major loss in activity was observed upon running the same photocatalyst sample in different batches.