Heterostructures of Ag₂FeSnS₄ chalcogenide nanoparticles as potential photocatalysts

Revaprasadu, Neerish; Adekoya, Joseph Adeyemi; Chibuokem, Michael Onyedikachi; Masikane, Siphamandla

Heterostructures of Ag₂FeSnS₄ chalcogenide nanoparticles as potential photocatalysts

dc.contributor.author	Revaprasadu, Neerish
dc.contributor.author	Adekoya, Joseph Adeyemi
dc.contributor.author	Chibuokem, Michael Onyedikachi
dc.contributor.author	Masikane, Siphamandla
dc.coverage.conference	issn
dc.date.accessioned	2026-03-12T06:42:16Z
dc.date.available	2026-03-12T06:42:16Z
dc.date.issued	2023
dc.departmentName	Chemistry
dc.description.abstract	The synthesis of photocatalysts with a suitable bandgap that could speed up the rate of oxidation of chemical effluent is of utmost importance to material chemists. It has been observed that chalcogenide nanostructures research continues to dominate scientific work over the last few years based on their exciting bandgap within the semiconductor bandgap range. In this research work, novel class I2-II-IV-VI4 quaternary chalcogenides nanoparticles were synthesised using co-precipitation by varying the reaction conditions of temperature (200 °C and 250 °C) and, essentially, capping agents (citric acid and glycerol) and the mole ratio of precursors. The resulting nanoparticles were purified and vacuum dried to give a black crystalline solid. The Powder-X-ray Diffraction analysis of the as-synthesised heterostructure chalcogenides showed novel pure phase materials that exhibited the orthorhombic and cubic Ag2FeSnS4 crystal systems reminiscent of the parent compounds Ag8SnS6 and AgSnS2 under different experimented reaction conditions. The morphological characterisation of the HC chalcogenides by Transmission Electron Microscope revealed that the nanomaterials formed were predominantly nanocubes, with particle diameters ranging from 22.98 ± 1.67 to 57.26 ± 12.93 nm. Further elucidation of the optical property of the HC nanoparticles by Tauc's plot based on the data derived from UV-Vis spectrophotometry measurement revealed that the bandgap ranged from 1.58 to 1.99 eV. The FTIR absorption character of the as-synthesised HC nanoparticles provided evidence for the surface functionalisation, confirming the presence of moieties like the hydroxyl (O-H) at 3396.16 cm−1 and carbonyl group (C=O) at 1712.31 cm−1. At the same time, the UV-Visible spectrophotometry, measured over a range of 250 to 1000 nm, showed broad absorbance between 420 and 800 nm, confirming the optical property of the nanoparticles. The result showed that heterostructure chalcogenide nanoparticles would have an excellent photocatalytic application.
dc.faculty	Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering
dc.identifier.citation	Adekoya, J.A., Chibuokem, M.O., Masikane, S. and Revaprasadu, N. 2023. Heterostructures of Ag₂FeSnS₄ chalcogenide nanoparticles as potential photocatalysts. Scientific African, 19, pp.1-11.
dc.identifier.issn	2468-2276 (online)
dc.identifier.other	http://10.1016/j.sciaf.2022.e01509
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10530/58949
dc.inproceedings	issn
dc.issuenumber	19
dc.keynote	issn
dc.language.iso	English
dc.pages	1 - 11
dc.peerreviewed	Yes
dc.publisher	Elsevier
dc.subject	Chalcogenide
dc.subject	Nanoparticles
dc.subject	Photocatalyst
dc.subject	Heterostructure
dc.subject	Co-precipitation
dc.title	Heterostructures of Ag₂FeSnS₄ chalcogenide nanoparticles as potential photocatalysts
dc.title.journal	Scientific African
dc.type	Journal Article
dspace.entity.type	Publication
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