Fabrication and excellent visible-light-driven photodegradation activity for antibiotics of SrTiO3 nanocube coated CdS microsphere heterojunctions

Abstract

Extending the light absorption range and facilitating the separation of photoinduced carriers are effective strategies in the process of improving photocatalysis. An effective method is to construct a heterostructure. In this work, a new heterojunction, CdS/SrTiO₃, was synthesized via a two step hydrothermal route and designed to decontaminate hazardous wastewater containing antibiotics under visible light irradiation. Specially, the efficient photocatalytic performance of the composites could be ascribed to the enhancement of visible light absorption efficiency and the efficient separation of the photoexcited carriers originating from the heterointerface. Furthermore, a plausible photocatalytic mechanism has been discussed in detail based on trap experiments and ESR analysis results. The CdS/SrTiO₃ heterojunction has potential to be applied for purifying antibiotic pollutants in environmental wastewater because of its high efficiency and stability.