High Efficient Photocatalytic Degradation of 3,7-Bis(Dimethylamino)-Phenothiazin-5-Ium Chloride Dye and Kinetics of H2 Evolution of N2H4H2O by Synthesized CdS/NiS Nanocomposite by Electrochemical Method

Abstract

CdS/NiS nanocomposites were synthesized by electrochemical method. Ni and Cd is one of the important II-VI semiconducting materials with a direct band gap of 3.26 eV which finds applications in electrical conductivity and photo-catalysis. The synthesized nanocomposites were characterized by BET, UV-VIS, XRD, FE-SEM (EDAX) techniques. X-Ray diffraction (XRD) reveals crystallite size to be 23.22 nm which was calculated using Williamson-Hall (W-H) plot method. The energy of the band gap for CdS/NiS could be thus estimated to be 3.26 eV. The photocatalytic activity of the sample was evaluated by the degradation of textile dye methylene Blue (MB) in aqueous solutions under UV radiation. Hydrogen energy is regarded as a promising alternative in terms of energy conversion and storage. Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) was carried out in both visible light and UV light by using Hydrazine (N2H4H2O) in the presence of CdS/NiS nanocomposite. The synthesized photocatalyst shows applicable performance for kinetics of Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) in Visible light and UV light. The decomposition of hydrazine (N2H4H2O) proceeded rapidly to generate free hydrogen rich gas through OH radical contact with CdS/NiS nanocomposite at room temperature. The rate of HER is limited by either proton adsorption onto an active site or evolution of formed hydrogen from the surface. A high Tafel slope is indicative of proton adsorption as the rate limiting step, while a lower Tafel slope (20 - 45 mV) indicates that the evolution of molecules hydrogen from the catalyst is rate limiting. In the present case the Tafel slopes for visible light 23.5 mV and 42.5 mV for UV light. Blank experiments show poor activity for HER i.e. 10.1 - 13.5 mV.