Photo-electrochemical and enhanced photocatalytic activity of CdS/rGO nanocomposites prepared by hydrothermal method

Abstract

CdS/rGO nanocomposites with different mass ratio of rGO were fabricated via a facile one-pot hydrothermal method. The influences of different ratios on the microstructure, photo-electrochemical, and photocatalytic properties of the as-prepared samples were investigated. The experimental results show that CdS/rGO nanocomposites are hexagonal structure, one-dimensional CdS nanorods decorated on the surface of graphene. CdS/rGO nanocomposites show excellent visible light absorption and the band gap smaller than that of pure CdS and occur red shift. The photoluminescence spectra, transient photocurrent response and electrochemical impedance spectra indicate this nanostructure can accelerate the separation and migration efficiency of photogenerated electron–hole pairs, inhibit the recombination of photogenerated carries and and enhance electron transportation in the photocatalytic reactions. CdS/rGO nanocomposites display enhanced photocatalytic activity in degradation of MO under the simulated sunlight irradiation than that of pure CdS. In addition, in the photocatalytic degradation process ·O2− and ·OH play the key role.