Jeon HW  Jeong MG  An BY  Hong MS  Seong SH  Lee GD

Vol. 26,  No. 4, pp. 311-320, Dec.  2020
10.7464/ksct.2020.26.4.311

CdS CdZnS/ZnO Photocatalyst Dye Degradation

PDF

In this study, the photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B (RhB), methyl orange (MO) and methylene blue (MB) was carried out under visible light irradiation using CdS and CdZnS/ZnO photocatalysts prepared by a simple precipitation method. This study focused on examining the effect of physicochemical properties of dye and photocatalyst on the reaction pathway of photocatalytic degradation. The prepared photocatalysts were characterized by XRD, UV-vis DRS and XPS. Both the CdS and CdZnS/ZnO photocatalysts exhibit an excellent absorption in the visible light and the UV light regions. It was observed that the photocatalytic degradation of MO proceeds via the same reaction mechanism on both the CdS and CdZnS/ZnO photocatalysts. However, the photocatalytic degradation of RhB and MB was found to proceed through a different reaction pathway on the CdS and CdZnS/ZnO catalysts. It is interesting to note that MB dimer was formed on the CdS catalyst at the beginning of the photocatalytic reaction, while the MB monomer was degraded during the overall photocatalytic reaction on CdZnS/ZnO. The above results may be mainly ascribed to the difference of band edge potential of the conduction band in the CdS and CdZnS/ZnO semiconductors and the adsorption property of dye on the catalysts.