Scaling-up photocatalytic activity of CdS from nanorods to nanowires for the MB degradation

The development of a scalable and facile method for the synthesis of visible light driven photocatalytic materials to degrade toxic organic dyes is highly challenging and essential. In this regards, cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanorods and nanowires with controlled aspect ratio, grain size, surface area, and bandgap were synthesized by a simple solvothermal method, and their photocatalytic performances were exploited for the photo-degradation of methylene blue (MB) under simulated solar light. Extensive structural characterizations to identify the origin of the activities were performed. The photocatalytic activity measurements showed that the degradation of MB was 94.41%, 97.24%, 97.88%, and 99.82% for CdS prepared by following four different synthesis routes and increasing trend showed a correlation with the nanostructure morphology changing from nanorod and nanowires with increasing aspect ratio. It has been found that CdS nanowires show more pronounced photocatalytic activity due to the efficient separation of photo-generated electron-hole pairs induced by increased the aspect ratio and higher active surface area.

Automated summary

A scalable and facile method for preparing visible light driven photocatalytic materials using cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanorods and nanowires was developed. The nanowires exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity compared to nanorods, likely due to their higher aspect ratio and larger active surface area for efficient separation of photo-generated electron-hole pairs.