Mass production of ZnxCd1-xS nanoparticles with enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity

High visible light photocatalytic efficiency is the vital factor that affects the practical application of photocatalyst in solviOng environmental pollution and energy crisis. Here, we report a facile and costeffective method for fabricating ZnxCd1-xS nanoparticles with the high percentage yield of 98%. The asprepared ZnxCd1-xS particles consisting of nanocrystals with several nanometers in size are rough and porous, which can be easily controlled by tuning the pH value. Moreover, the ZnxCd1-xS samples show excellent photocatalytic activity in degradation of methylene blue (MB) under visible light irradiation due to the small grain size and the large surface area. This work provides new insights into the low-cost, large-scale production of visible light response photocatalysts with high efficiency for photocatalytic applications. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.