Enhanced electrochemical and photocatalytic performance of combustion engineered Zn₂SnO₄ nanomaterials

The current study investigates the electrochemical and photocatalytic performance of Zn₂SnO₄ nanomaterials synthesized via the combustion method using urea and ODH as fuels. XRD analysis confirmed a single cubic phase, with an average crystallite size of 20–30 nm. Morphological and optical characteristics were investigated using SEM, Diffused Reflectance Spectroscopy(DRS), SEM and UV–Vis analyses revealed that the ODH-derived sample possessed a more porous morphology and a wider band gap (3.37 eV) than the urea-based material (3.28 eV). Electrochemical studies demonstrated superior redox behaviour for Zn₂SnO₄ (ODH) electrode achieving specific capacitance 1317 Fg⁻¹ compared to 1120 Fg⁻¹ Zn₂SnO₄ (urea), suggesting enhanced surface kinetics. At all scan rates, Zn₂SnO₄ (ODH) demonstrated higher specific capacitance values, with a maximum of 1317 Fg⁻¹ and a minimum of 427 Fg⁻¹ , whereas Zn₂SnO₄ (urea) showed 1120 Fg⁻¹ and 404 Fg⁻¹ , respectively. The calculated b -values of 0.932 (ODH) and 0.928 (urea) indicate a dominant capacitive charge storage mechanism. At 20 mV/s, the capacitive contribution for Zn₂SnO₄ (ODH) was 82.81 %, increasing to 91.50 % at 100 mV/s. In contrast, Zn₂SnO₄ (urea) showed 75.63 % capacitive contribution at 20 mV/s, rising to 87.40 % at 100 mV/s. Photocatalytic experiments demonstrated high degradation efficiency for fast orange red dye (FOR), confirming their excellent photocatalytic stability. Both samples exhibited excellent photocatalytic degradation (∼95 %) toward Fast Orange Red dye, with the urea-based Zn₂SnO₄ showing slightly higher activity due to its narrower band gap. All these results confirm that the prepared Zn₂SnO₄ nanomaterials are highly promising for advanced energy storage and photocatalytic applications.