A New Application of Nanocrystal In2S3 in Efficient Degradation of Organic Pollutants under Visible Light Irradiation

The nanocrystal In2S3 (nc-In2S3) has been used as a visible light active photocatalyst. The optical absorption indicated a narrow band gap (E-g =1.9 eV) for nc-In2S3. Compared with TiO2-xNx, the decomposition of methyl orange using nc-In2S3 revealed enormously enhanced visible light activity. The center dot OH during the photocatalytic degradation process was detected by tereplithalic acid photoluminescence probing technique (TA-PL). The organic intermediate products were successfully separated by liquid chromatogram and subsequently identified by an electrospray ionization (ESI) mass spectral technique. The possible photocatalytic mechanism is presented.