Novel synthesis of Polyaniline/SrSnO3 nanocomposites with enhanced photocatalytic activity

Abstract Synthesis and characterization of efficient photocatalysts based on novel polyaniline-SrSnO3 (PANI/SrSnO3) nanocomposites at various PANI contents (0-10 wt%) are demonstrated. The X-ray diffraction and FT-IR characterizations exhibit the formation of standard single phase of orthorhombic SrSnO3 and chemical interaction between SrSnO3 and PANI. The TEM image of SrSnO3 shows mixture of irregular shapes of nanoparticles and nanorods with slight agglomeration and sizes ranging from 10 to 50 nm. In addition, SrSnO3 nanostructures intermingled or covered by conducting polymer PANI confirmed the coupling of nanocomposite between PANI and SrSnO3. The newly obtained PANI/SrSnO3 nanocomposites have been evaluated for photodegradation of both methylene blue dye and gemifloxacin mesylate drug and compared with pure PANI and SrSnO3. The findings showed that PANI/SrSnO3 nanocomposites at various PANI contents revealed better photocatalytic efficiency than either pure PANI or SrSnO3. However, 5% PANI/SrSnO3 nanocomposite is considered the optimum photocatalyst with 83% destruction of dye molecule within 4 h under UV illumination compared with 33.8% and 43.7% degradation for pure SrSnO3 and PANI, respectively. In addition, the photodegradation rate of 5% PANI/SrSnO3 nanocomposite is greater 4 and 3 folds than that pure SrSnO3 and PANI, respectively.