Preparation of spherical silver and tin dioxide nanocomposites with the high photocatalytic performance by laser-induced deposition in liquid medium

•Spherical Ag and SnO2 nanocomposites were successfully prepared by laser-induced deposition in a liquid medium.•Photocatalytic performance was enhanced 3.1 times than the pure SnO2 and 13.3 times than the pure Ag.•99.1% methylene blue can be removed within 60 min under ultraviolet lamp irradiation.•Higher reaction rate constant was achieved and exhibited better performance than previous works in similar conditions.•Spherical Ag anchoring on the surface of SnO2 promoted the separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs.