Graphene-enhanced visible-light photocatalysis of large-sized CdS particles for wastewater treatment
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NANO EXPRESS
Open Access
Graphene-enhanced visible-light photocatalysis of large-sized CdS particles for wastewater treatment Wei Lü1,2*, Jie Chen1, Yao Wu1, Lianfeng Duan1,2, Yue Yang1 and Xin Ge3
Abstract The hybrid composites of graphene decorated by large-sized CdS particles (G/M-CdS) were prepared by a one-pot solvothermal route in which the reduction of graphite oxide into graphene was accompanied by the generation of microsized CdS particles. The structure and composition of the obtained nanocomposites were studied by means of X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The CdS particles with the average sizes of approximately 640 nm were formed on graphene sheets. The as-prepared composite was used as adsorbent to remove dye from wastewater using the organic dye Rhodamine B as the adsorbate. The G/M-CdS composite reveals a high photodegradation rate under visible light irradiation. Our results demonstrate that the G/M-CdS is very promising for removing organic dyes from wastewater. Keywords: CdS; Graphene; Photocatalysis; Wastewater treatment
Background In recent years, the growing concerns about energy and environmental problems have stimulated extensive research on solar energy utilization. It is well known that dyes are widely used in various fields, but their discharge into water could cause environmental pollutions since most of the dyes are harmful. Therefore, various strategies are explored to photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes using semiconductor photocatalysts. In particular, the carbon nanostructures, acting as outstanding electron acceptors and highly conductive scaffolds, have found their applications in photocatalysis [1-4]. Commonly used adsorbents can suffer from low adsorption capacities and separation inconveniences. Therefore, the exploration of new promising adsorbents is still desirable. Graphene with atomically thin and two-dimensional conjugated structure, exhibits high conductivity as well as thermal, chemical, mechanical, and optical stability and a high specific surface area [5-8]. These outstanding advantages allowed graphene to be utilized as a promising adsorbent supporting material to remove pollutants from aqueous solution [9-14]. CdS is an important II–VI * Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Key Laboratory of Advanced Structural Materials, Ministry of Education, Changchun University of Technology, Changchun 130012, China 2 Advanced Institute of Materials Science, Changchun University of Technology, Changchun 130012, China Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
semiconductor, it can be potentially applied in many fields such as light-emitting diodes, thin film transistors, solar cells, and photocatalysts [15-19]. The narrower bandgap of CdS than that of TiO2 facilitates the utilization of visible light, which makes CdS a competitive candidate as photocatalyst. When CdS is irradiated by visible light, electrons located in the valence band can be excited to the conduction band, forming elec
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