Visible light driven photocatalytic activities of metal sulfides synthesized by simple co-precipitation method

Abstract

Simple co-precipitation method was employed for the successful preparation of metal sulfide nanostructures (ZnS and CdS). The structural properties of the samples were investigated using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) technique. The crystallite size of CdS and ZnS were observed to be 3.2 nm and 3.3 nm respectively. The optical properties of the samples were examined using UV–Visible absorbance and FTIR spectroscopy. The elemental composition of the samples were characterized using EDX. The photocatalytic activities of the nanostructures were studied and compared towards the degradation of Malachite green dye under the action of different sources of light. Under visible light source, CdS shows higher photocatalytic efficiency which degrades 95% of the dye as compared to ZnS which degrades only 35% of the dye under 2 h of light irradiation. However, under UV light source, ZnS shows higher photocatalytic efficiency with degradation percentage of 63% as compared to CdS whose degradation percentage is 42% under the same experimental condition.