Facile sonochemical synthesis of CdS/COF heterostructured nanocomposites and their enhanced photocatalytic degradation of Bisphenol-A

Abstract

• The CdS/COF photocatalyst was fabricated by ultrasound-assisted synthesis method. • The n-p heterojunction of CdS/COF is beneficial to the separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. • 0.5 wt% CdS/COF exhibits an excellent photocatalytic efficiency to degrade Bisphenol A. In this study, new CdS/COF heterostructured nanocomposites were successfully synthesized via a facile sonochemical irradiation method and characterized in detail with SEM, HR-TEM, XPS, Raman spectra, XRD, P-L-spectra, UV–visible spectra, and BET specific surface area. CdS were successfully attached to the surface of the COF (covalent organic framework). Furthermore, the specific surface area of heterostructured CdS/COF increased from 51 to 600 m 2 /g by adding different amounts of COF from 0 wt% to 10 wt%. The results indicate that the enhanced photocatalytic degradation performances of BPA by CdS are achieved by the addition of COF. In an irradiation time of 3 h, the removal rate of BPA increased from 40.61% to 85.68%. Furthermore, among the various prepared CdS/COF heterostructured nanomaterials 0.5 wt% CdS/COF has the highest photocatalytic activity at pH = 7 and dosage of 0.3 g/L. Besides, the main active radicals of h + and O 2 − are the significant radicals in the photocatalytic reaction for BPA degradation, which is confirmed by using radicals trapping experiments. Besides, 0.5 wt% CdS/COF has been demonstrated with the photocatalytic stability and reusability of degrading BPA by using cycling analysis.