title: One-pot hydrothermal synthesis of mesoporous Zn(x)Cd(1-x)S/reduced graphene oxide hybrid material and its enhanced photocatalytic activity.
abstract: We successfully synthesized mesoporous Zn(x)Cd(1-x)S/reduced graphene oxide (Z(x)CSG) hybrid materials as photocatalysts using a facile one-pot hydrothermal reaction, in which graphene oxide (GO) was easily reduced (RGO), and simultaneously Zn(x)Cd(1-x)S (Z(x)CS) nanoparticles (NPs) with a mesoporous structure were uniformly dispersed on the RGO sheets. By well tuning the band gap from 3.42 to 2.21 eV by changing the molar ratio of Zn/Cd (or Zn content), Z(x)CSG with an optimal zinc content has been found to have a significant absorption in the visible light (VL) region. In addition, under VL irradiation (λ > 420 nm), Z(x)CSG also showed zinc content-dependent photocatalytic efficiencies for the degradation of methylene blue (MB). Our findings are that, among Z(x)CSG, Z(0.4)CSG displayed not only a superior photodegradation efficiency of MB (98%), but also good removal efficiency of total organic carbon (TOC) (67%). Furthermore, Z(0.4)CSG had a high photocatalytic stability, and could be used repeatedly. The enhanced photocatalytic activity for Z(0.4)CSG could be attributed to a synergistic effect between mesoporous Z(x)CS NPs and RGO, including the optimal band gap and the moderate conduction band position for ZxCS (compared to CdS), efficient separation and transfer ability of photogenerated electron/hole pairs in the presence of RGO sheets, and relatively high surface area for both mesoporous Z(x)CS NPs and RGO.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science, Key Laboratory of Mobile Materials, MOE, and State Key Laboratory of Superhard Materials, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China. wtzheng@jlu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xinwei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Hongwei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Xiaoqiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Weitao
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Yichun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu