Photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants using rGO supported TiO2-CdS composite under visible light irradiation

Nanocomposites of titanium dioxide (TiO2) and cadmium sulfide (CdS) were modified by reduced graphene oxide (rGO) via solvothermal method to synthesize TiO2-CdS/rGO for the photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants. The resultant samples were characterized by XRD, TEM, BET and FT-IR, etc. Analysis indicated that TiO2-CdS/rGO had small particle size (similar to 10 nm), regular crystal structure, and the surface area (109.7 m(2)/g) was much enhanced comparing with that of TiO2-CdS (67 m(2)/g) and CdS (53 m(2)/g). The photocatalytic efficiency of TiO2-CdS/rGO has been largely improved, and the degradation ratio of Methylene blue (MB) and Rhodamine B (RhB) reached 97.5% and 93.5% just in 20-min light irradiation, respectively, under suitable conditions. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.