Effect of sulfur source on photocatalytic degradation performance of CdS/MoS2 prepared with one-step hydrothermal synthesis

CdS/MoS2, an extremely efficient photocatalyst, has been extensively used in hydrogen photoproduction and pollutant degradation. CdS/MoS2 can be synthesized by a facile one-step hydrothermal process. However, the effect of the sulfur source on the synthesis of CdS/MoS2via one-step hydrothermal methods has seldom been investigated. We report herein a series of one-step hydrothermal preparations of CdS/MoS2 using three different sulfur sources: thioacetamide, l-cysteine, and thiourea. The results revealed that the sulfur source strongly affected the crystallization, morphology, elemental composition and ultraviolet (UV)-visible-light-absorption ability of the CdS/MoS2. Among the investigated sulfur sources, thioacetamide provided the highest visible-light absorption ability for CdS/MoS2, with the smallest average particle size and largest surface area, resulting in the highest efficiency in Methylene Blue (MB) degradation. The photocatalytic activity of CdS/MoS2 synthesized from the three sulfur sources can be arranged in the following order: thioacetamide>l-cysteine>thiourea. The reaction rate constants (k) for thioacetamide, l-cysteine, and thiourea were estimated to be 0.0197, 0.0140, and 0.0084min-1, respectively. However, thioacetamide may be limited in practical application in terms of its price and toxicity, while l-cysteine is relatively economical, less toxic and exhibited good photocatalytic degradation performance toward MB.