CeO2/CdS Heterojunctions Decorated Cotton Fabrics as Facile Recyclable Photocatalysts for Highly Efficient Visible Light Driven Degradation of Methylene Blue

Abstract

In this work, visible light response CeO2/CdS decorated cotton fabrics as durable and facile recyclable composite photocatalysts were fabricated for photo-degradation of methylene blue (MB). First of all, amino-functionalized CeO2/CdS nanoparticles were synthesized through a fast, efficient and low-cost coprecipitation method. Subsequently, the as-prepared CeO2/CdS nanoparticles were immobilized on aldehyde-functionalized cotton fabric surfaces as composite photocatalysts via "amine-aldehyde" chemical reaction. The surface microstructure and chemical composition of the CeO2/CdS decorated cotton fabric (CeO2/CdS-CF) were characterized by SEM, FTIR and XPS, respectively. The results showed that CeO2/CdS nanoparticles were successfully anchored on the surface of cotton fabric, and distributed uniformly. As expected, the as-prepared CeO2/CdS-CF exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity, which can degrade MB within 90 min with a degradation efficiency of 93.8% under simulated sunlight irradiation, due to the CeO2/CdS heterostructure with the efficient photo-generated charge transfer and separation. In addition, the degradation efficiency remained above 90.3% after five successive degradation cycles, indicating that the obtained CeO2/CdS-CF possessed excellent stability and recyclability. This work opened up a facile preparation way for the fabrication of durable and recyclable composite photocatalysts, and has a promising application in treating dye contaminated wastewater.