The Effect of Hydrothermal Treatment on Activities of Cd0.3Zn0.7S Photocatalyst under Visible Light

Abstract A new technique for the synthesis of multiphase photocatalysts Cd 1-x Zn x S/ZnS with hydrothermal treatment has been proposed. Photocatalysts were characterized by different techniques including XRD, low temperature N 2 adsorption, and UV-vis spectroscopy. The activity of synthesized photocatalysts was tested in the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution from water solutions of Na 2 S/Na 2 SO 3 under visible light irradiation (λ = 450 nm). It was shown that the hydrothermal treatment of Cd 0.3 Zn 0.7 S lead to the formation of multiphase Cd 0.6 Zn 0.4 S/ZnS and increased the activity by a factor of 8.7. The highest exhibited rate of hydrogen evolution on the composite photocatalyst was 8 mmol g -1 h -1 .