The surface engineering of CdS nanocrystal for photocatalytic reaction: A strategy of modulating the trapping states and radicals generation towards RhB degradation

Abstract

Cationic surfactant (CTAB) and anionic surfactant (sodium oleate) were used to modify CdS nanocrystals with different surface states. The surfactant CTAB led to surface states of hole traps, while sodium oleate induced surface states of electron traps on the surface of CdS. The photodegradation of rhodamine B (RhB) over these modified CdS nanocrystals was investigated under visible light irradiation. An efficient cycloreversion degradation of RhB occurred over the E-CdS nanocrystals. However, for H-CdS nanocrystals, an efficient N-deethylation reaction concomitant with a subsequent slow cycloreversion reaction of RhB was observed. The E-CdS sample showed a first-order kinetic rate for the cycloreversion degradation of RhB. By contrast, H-CdS sample shows a zero-order kinetic rate for the N-deethylation reaction of RhB followed by a first-order kinetic rate for the cycloreversion degradation. It is revealed that the different kinds of surface traps could significantly affect the dynamic properties of photogenerated charge carriers, which leads to different degradation mechanism of RhB. These findings demonstrate an alternative solution towards developing efficient photocatalysts with high selectivity by constructing different surface trap states.