Abstract
A simple chemical precipitation route was utilized for the synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles (NPs), CdS NPs and ZnO–CdS nanocomposites (NCs). The synthesized nanostructures were examined for the crystal structure, morphology, optical properties and photodegradation activity of rhodamine B (RhB) dye. The ZnO–CdS NCs showed a mixed phase of hexagonal wurtzite structure for both ZnO NPs and CdS NPs. Pure ZnO NPs and CdS NPs possessed bandgaps of 3.2617 and 2.5261 eV, respectively. On the other hand, the composite nanostructures displayed a more narrow bandgap of 2.9796 eV than pure ZnO NPs. When compared to bare ZnO NPs, the PL intensity of near-band-edge emission at 381 nm was practically suppressed, suggesting a lower rate of photogenerated electron–hole (e−/h+) pairs recombination, resulting in enhanced photocatalytic activity. Under solar light, the composite nanostructures displayed a photodegradation efficiency of 98.16% towards of RhB dye. After four trials, the structural stability of ZnO–CdS NCs was verified.
Highlights
Photocatalysis has been extensively studied in order to assure the ongoing expansion of civilization in the face of severe environmental pollution
Whereas in Zinc oxide (ZnO)–cadmium sulfide (CdS) NCs, the absorption edge has been changed to a longer wavelength side, suggesting that the absorption capacity is expanded into the visible region. These results demonstrated that the ZnO–CdS NCs have the merit of excellent utilization of the solar spectrum, leading to enhanced photocatalytic efficiency
The structural analysis demonstrated that the ZnO–CdS NCs exhibited a mixed phase for both hexagonal ZnO NPs, and CdS NPs with average crystallite size of 27 nm
Summary
Photocatalysis has been extensively studied in order to assure the ongoing expansion of civilization in the face of severe environmental pollution. ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) have large application potential in photocatalysis, solar cell, optoelectronics, sensors, and light emitting devices, which have a wide direct bandgap of ≈3.37 eV and a large exciton binding energy of 60 meV at room temperature. Due to their large bandgap and rapid recombination of photoinduced electron–hole (e− /h+ ) pairs, it is challenging to attain the required photocatalytic performance from pure ZnO NPs [4].
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