Synthesis And Characterization of CdS/CeO2 Nanocomposite With Improved Visible-Light Photocatalytic Degradation of Methyl Orange Dye

In this work, different types of photocatalysts in single (CdS and CeO 2 ) and binary (CdS/CeO 2 in different molar ratio: 0.5:1, 1:1 and 1:0.5) systems were synthesized by co-precipitation method. Crystal structure, surface area, morphology, band gap energy, functional groups and optical properties of the as-synthesized photocatalysts were characterized by using XRD, BET, SEM-EDX, UV/Vis, FTIR and PL instruments, respectively. Photocatalytic activities of single and binary nanocomposite were evaluated by using aqueous solution of model pollutant methyl orange dye (MeO). Photocatalytic activities of binary CdS/CeO 2 (1:1) nanocomposite were found to be higher than those of single counterparts. The photodegradation efficiencies of the binary system were found to be 53.73%. The reusability of binary photocatalyst was tested and only about 33% decrement was observed after four successive runs. Photocatalytic degradation of MeO dye follows the pseudo first order kinetics for the entire as-synthesized nanocomposite. The results also suggest that in the CdS/CeO 2 (1:1) nanocomposite the photoinduced electrons and holes can be effectively separated.