Ternary system from mesoporous CdS–ZnS modified with polyaniline for removal of cationic and anionic dyes

Abstract

In this work, mesoporous CdS (130.7 m2/g) was prepared; then, ZnS was deposited by chemical bath deposition (CBD) and successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method, to get CdS–ZnS(C) and CdS–ZnS(S), respectively. Subsequently, the highest efficient binary hybrid was sensitized with polyaniline to produce CdS–ZnS–PANI for the first time. XRD and EDX analyses confirmed the coating of CdS with ZnS using CBD and SILAR method. The careful examination for the surface morphology of the binary hybrids illustrated that CdS–ZnS(S) has uniform morphology and the CdS nanoparticles are homogeneously overcoated with ZnS. In contrast, CdS–ZnS(C) exhibits inhomogeneous surface, where there are ZnS particles that aggregate together and there is another region which contains ZnS deposited onto CdS. The estimated band gap of CdS, CdS–ZnS(S), and CdS–ZnS–PANI was 2.36 eV, 2.44 eV, and 1.9 eV, respectively. The removal efficiency for cationic and anionic dyes single and/or in combination using CdS, ZnS, CdS–ZnS(C), CdS–ZnS(S), PANI, and CdS–ZnS–PANI was studied. The effect of the amount of ZnS loaded by SILAR process on the activity of the CdS–ZnS(S) was presented. The results proposed that CdS–ZnS(S) exhibits selective adsorption and high removal efficiency for cationic dye compared to CdS–ZnS(C) due to higher negative zeta potential and large surface area. The CdS–ZnS–PANI ternary nanocomposite showed uptake efficiency of 96.7% for cationic dye (MB) and 94.3% for anionic dye (MO) in a mixed dye solution after 10 min. Finally, the possible adsorption mechanism was proposed.