Novel binary photocatalysts containing polyoxometalate immobilized on CdS nanorods surface for enhance photocatalytic performance

In this work, different types of Polyoxometalates (POMs), such as H3PW12O40, H3PMo12O40 and TBA [MnMo6] were successfully deposited on CdS nanorods (CdS-NRs) through electrostatic interaction between CdS-NRs and Polyoxometalate. The diffuse reflectance spectra after UV-visible results showed that the POMs enhanced the visible light absorption range of CdS-NRs, which ensured effective light absorption for composites. Photocurrent response results indicated that the carriers separation efficiency of composites had much higher than bare CdSNRs. The prepared photocatalysts were further subjected for photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants and around 98% of dye has been removed from the system. The Radical trapping experiments further clarify that that h+ and center dot O2 are the major factors in photocatalytic pollutant degradation. To investigate the stability, POM loaded CdS-NRs composite was repeated four times for photocatalysis, which shows high efficiency till fourth cycle. The aforesaid results indicate that, POMs on the surface of CdS-NRs materials effectively enhance the photocatalytic performance and CdS-NRs provide a suitable support for POMs to modify them for heterogeneous catalysis. This work opens a new and feasible pathway to design the heterostructure photocatalysts using POMs and sulfides for high-efficiency environmental purification.