Novel binary photocatalysts containing polyoxometalate immobilized on CdS nanorods surface for enhance photocatalytic performance

Abstract

In this work, different types of Polyoxometalates (POMs), such as H3PW12O40, H3PMo12O40 and TBA [MnMo6] were successfully deposited on CdS nanorods (CdS-NRs) through electrostatic interaction between CdS-NRs and Polyoxometalate. The diffuse reflectance spectra after UV–visible results showed that the POMs enhanced the visible light absorption range of CdS-NRs, which ensured effective light absorption for composites. Photocurrent response results indicated that the carriers separation efficiency of composites had much higher than bare CdS-NRs. The prepared photocatalysts were further subjected for photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants and around 98% of dye has been removed from the system. The Radical trapping experiments further clarify that that h+ and O2− are the major factors in photocatalytic pollutant degradation. To investigate the stability, POM loaded CdS-NRs composite was repeated four times for photocatalysis, which shows high efficiency till fourth cycle. The aforesaid results indicate that, POMs on the surface of CdS-NRs materials effectively enhance the photocatalytic performance and CdS-NRs provide a suitable support for POMs to modify them for heterogeneous catalysis. This work opens a new and feasible pathway to design the heterostructure photocatalysts using POMs and sulfides for high-efficiency environmental purification.