Synthesis and characterization of Ag doped cadmium sulfide/multi walled carbon nanotubes: Structural, and photocatalysis studies

Abstract

Silver doped cadmium sulfide as quantum dots/multi walled carbon nanotubes composites were prepared by chemical methods. The prepared nano-samples were characterized by photoluminescence (PL) and UV–Vis spectroscopy, field emission-SEM, Dynamic light scattering (DLS), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The DLS result of as-prepared samples was indicated the average size of 5.0, 5.5, and 6.0 nm for CdS quantum dots, CdS/MWCNTs, and CdS/MWCNTs nanocomposites, respectively. The band gap values of CdS QDs, CdS/MWCNTs, Ag-CdS/MWCNTs (2:1), Ag-CdS/MWCNTs (1:1) and Ag-CdS/MWCNTs (2:1) were 2.80, 2.75, 2.70, 2.55, and 2.55 eV, respectively. The specific surface area values of CdS QDs, Ag-CdS/MWCNTs, and Ag-CdS/MWCNTs (1:1) were 47.245, 234.591, and 275.365 m2 g−1, respectively. The prepared samples were investigated towards photo-degradation of crystal violet as a dye compound under ultraviolet light illumination. The amount of photo-decomposition activity of the Ag doped CdS/MWCNTs nanocomposites could be substantially raised. The research work result provides an effective method to prepare several nano-photocatalysts with UV light sensitive progress for degradation of dye compounds.