Heterostructure CeO2/CdS and CdS/CeO2 nanocomposites were synthesized by a facile ‘one-pot’ chemical method in ambient atmosphere and examined photocatalytic activity. The as-prepared nanocomposites were characterized using XRD, SEM, TEM, UV-vis, PL and TG-DTA. The obtained results reveal successful formation of CeO2/CdS and CdS/CeO2 nanocomposites. The TEM images show that well-dispersed particles were uniform and fairly small, mainly spherical-like shape. Enhanced photocatalytic degradation efficiency was observed for CdS/CeO2 composite exhibits 86%. This result suggested that the CdS/CeO2 composite significantly improve the photocatalytic efficiency due to reduction the recombination of photogenerated electron–hole pairs and creation of efficient free radicals. This work could provide a novel approach to construct new heterojunction photocatalysts and a deeper insight for the treatment of textile wastewater.

In this paper, well-crystalline Ag2O/ZnO and ZnO/Ag2O nanocomposites were prepared by a facile chemical method. Structural, morphological and optical properties of the nanocomposite were studied using various advanced characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV-Visible (UVVis) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The Ag2O and ZnO were clearly identified in the composite from SEM and TEM. Significant shifting observed in the both UV-Vis and PL spectroscopy. In addition, electrocatalytic activity of the Ag2O/ZnO and ZnO/Ag2O nanocomposites studied by an electrochemical workstation. The ZnO/Ag2O nanocomposites showed better optical and electrochemical properties due to decorating the low-band gap Ag2O on the surface of hexagonal structure ZnO nanoparticles.