A study on the facile synthesis of SnO2–PbS nanocomposites with controlled structure for application

(Arik Kar, et al. Nanoscale, 2016, 8, 2727): In this work, we have discussed the fabrication, structures and photocatalytic properties of SnO2-PbS nanocomposites. First we have developed an innovative solution synthetic technique for the preparation of pure SnO2 nanoparticles, pure PbS nanocubes and SnO2-PbS nanocomposites. The structures are confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD)/Reitveld study, Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis. Elemental mapping and line scan EDX analysis successfully demonstrate the effective mixing of SnO2 and PbS to form nanocomposites. We have presented a model to explain different relaxation processes in SnO2-PbS nanocomposites which helps to understand how the two semiconductors interact. Lastly, we have investigated the photocatalytic properties of as-synthesized nanocomposites which are found to be significantly improved relative to pure SnO2 or PbS. I have presented an oral presentation on this work at the 2nd International Conference on Past and Present Research systems of Green Chemistry held at Florida, USA (Journal I.F= 7.76, Total Citation-7).