CoS2-decorated CdS nanorods for efficient degradation of organic pollutants

Abstract

The establishment of heterojunctions is an effective way to improve the performance of semiconductor photocatalysts as a solution to solve environmental pollution problems; however, the decomposition efficiency of organic pollutants driven by sunlight remains a challenge. Herein, CoS₂-decorated CdS hetero-junctions as highly efficient photocatalysts were rationally synthesized via a three-step process and CoS₂-decorated CdS composites were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, UV-Vis diffusion reflectance spectrometry, fluorescence spectroscopy analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, and transient photocurrent measurement. Using organic dyes rhodamine B (Rh B) and nitenpyram (NTP) as model pollutants, the performance of the CoS₂-decorated CdS composites for the degradation of model pollutants were evaluated. Among them, the material with the best performance can degrade 99.5% Rh B and 92.5% NTP within 120 min. Furthermore, the catalyst still maintained its high catalytic activity after five cycles. This work provides a new idea for developing efficient and inexpensive hetero-junctions as photo-catalysts.