CdS and CdS-based composites for photocatalytic applications
Authors: Thanh Tam Nguyen, Cong Khanh Tran, Cheng-Kuo Tsai, Jao-Jia Horng
Abstract:
The development of energy sources has raised many concerns of environmental pollution and, hence, many new and green technologies have studied, such as photocatalysis-an emerging technology for catching solar energy, producing hydrogen by splitting water, and degrading organic pollutants. Cadmium sulfide (CdS) and CdS-based composites have been extensively investigated for photocatalysis owing to their visible-light responses and photocatalytic properties. In this study, CdS nanorods (NRs) are synthesized by a widely used hydrothermal method-a green and low-cost technology. In addition, CdS/Ag2S and Cu2O/g-C3N4/CdS composites are synthesized by cation exchange and precipitated methods, respectively, from those CdS NRs. The chemico-physical properties of catalysts were analyzed by BET, XRD, TEM and so on. The photocatalytic ability of CdS NRS for PET plastic waste is studied under a 30 W green LED light in 10 M NaOH etched solution with 2 g/L CdS at 40°C. Ciprofloxacin (CIP) are degraded by CdS/Ag2S composites under simulated sunlight illumination and reached 60% degradation at 180 min. Therefore, we proved that CdS and CdS-based composited did have potential in several environmental applications.
Keywords: CdS, CdS-based composites, photocatalyst, PET, CIP