Continuous Spray Pyrolysis Technique Research Articles

Synthesis of hollow CdS micro-/nanospheres by CoSP technique and their visible light photocatalytic activities

CdS hollow micro-/nanospheres with high yield, purity, and photocatalytic property have been successfully synthesized by a continuous spray pyrolysis (CoSP) technique. The experimental conditions mainly the temperature and the nature of solvent are found to influence the creation of hollow spheres. The synthesized products have been characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), UV–vis and photoluminescence spectra. The XRD analysis confirmed the hexagonal crystal structure of the CdS microspheres supported by the measured lattice spacing from HR-TEM. The effects of synthesis temperature and the electric field applied during the spray on the formation of hollow spheres and their visible light photocatalytic properties are reported. Photodegradation of methylene blue (MB) dye under visible light was used to evaluate the performance of these CoSP made CdS micro-/nanospheres. The MB photodegradation efficiency was maximum, ∼90% in 2h, for CdS microspheres prepared at 500°C. The importance of hollow morphology over solid morphology is also proven; the hollow sphere sample (CdS5) is about twice efficient than solid sphere sample (CdS7). The results show that the CoSP method is a simple and inexpensive technique for preparing highly photo-active CdS hollow spheres which can be extended to prepare other sulphide and oxide hollow spheres at a large scale. Typically 100mg of the powder can be prepared from ∼100ml of spray solution.

Size controlled synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles via electric field assisted continuous spray pyrolysis (EACoSP) reactor

ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized by the continuous spray pyrolysis technique (CoSP) and the effect of applied voltage across the spray nozzle and an annular ground electrode during spray has been studied. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy studies showed that the product has (hexagonal) wurtzite structure with the average particle size decreasing from 18.5 nm to 12.9 nm in the presence of a high DC voltage (1 kV). The higher value of the absorption peak for the nanoparticles synthesized without voltage is supportive of this behavior. The films deposited by spin coating using these nanoparticles can be used for a variety of applications, particularly as photoelectrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells.