Photochemical Synthesis of ZnS Nanosheet and Its Use in Photodegradation of Organic Pollutants

Abstract

ZnS is an important photocatalyst and its use in photodegradation of organic pollutants may be effectively facilitated by developing new fabrication methods at room temperature and exploring novel new morphologies. In this paper, taking Na <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> S <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> O <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> and ZnSO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">4</sub> as the precursors, an 8 W 254nm UV lamp as the light source, ZnS nanosheet at the air-water interface was obtained by a photochemical route. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy were used to characterize the products. In addition, this material possessed excellent photocatalytic activities in photodegradation of some organic pollutants, for example methyl orange. Under the irradiation of a 300 W high-pressure mercury lamp, 0.02 g sample exhibits degradation efficiency 70% of 200ml 5×10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-5</sup> M methyl orange in 60 min. This route is convenient, low-cost, green and can be extended to prepare other oxide or sulfide semiconductor nanostructures with photocatalytic activities.