Template-Free Hydrothermal Synthesis of Novel Three-Dimensional Dendritic CdS Nanoarchitectures

Novel three-dimensional (3D) dendritic CdS nanoarchitectures were synthesized via a facile template-free hydrothermal process only using CdSO4 and thiourea as precursors and cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) as a capping reagent. The morphology of CdS nanoarchitecture is strongly dependent on the reaction conditions such as the ratio of thiourea/CdSO4, concentration of CPC, and hydrothermal time. A growth mechanism of dendritic CdS nanoarchitectures is proposed by capturing the shape evolution based on SEM observation, and the detailed formation procedures are as follows: (a) formation of CdS nanoparticles; (b) CdS nanoparticles form larger aggregates via hydrogen-bond interaction; (c) formation of nanopetal by H-bonding effects; (d) formation of the dendritic CdS nanoarchitectures by Ostwald Ripening. Furthermore, the photocatalytic activity experiment illustrated that as-synthesized dendritic CdS nanoarchitectures exhibited an excellent photocatalytic performance to decolorize methyl orange aqueous solution under the visible-light illumination.