Pure and Antimony-doped Tin Oxide Nanoparticles for Fluorescence Sensing and Dye Degradation Applications

Luminescent antimony doped tin oxide nanoparticles have drawn tremendous attention from researchers due to its low cost, chemical inertness and stability. Herein, a quick, facile and economic hydrothermal/solvothermal method was utilized for the preparation of antimony doped (1%, 3%, 5%, 7% and 10%) tin oxide nanoparticles. The antimony doping in a reasonable range can change the properties of SnO₂. As such, a lattice distortion increases with increase in doping, which is evidenced through crystallographic studies. It was found that the highest photocatalytic degradation efficiency of malachite green (MG) dye of about 80.86% was achieved with 10% Sb-doped SnO₂ in aqueous media due to small particle size. Moreover, 10% Sb-doped SnO₂ also showed the highest fluorescence quenching efficiency of about 27% for Cd²⁺ of concentration 0.11 µg/ml in the drinking water. The limit of detection (LOD) comes out as 0.0152 µg/ml. This sample selectively detected the cadmium ion even in the presence of other heavy metal ions. Notably, 10% Sb-doped SnO₂ could appeared as a promising sensor for fast analysis of Cd²⁺ ions in real samples.