Fatty acid-assisted synthesis of CdS microspheres: physicochemical properties and photocatalytic activity

This work deals with fatty acid-assisted high yield synthesis of cadmium sulfide (CdS) mesoporous microspheres (MSs). The synthesis was conducted by solvothermal treatment of thiourea (TU) mixed cadmium-oleate (Cd-O) complex precursor at 180 degrees C. The Cd-O complex sulphurized upon thermal decomposition of TU and produced OA-capped CdS nanocrystals (NCs) composed cauliflower-like mesoporous CdS MSs with an average size of 1.5 pm. The as-synthesized CdS MSs exhibit good physicochemical properties. Moreover, the as-synthesized CdS MSs showed pronounced photocatalytic activity to degrade rhodamine B (RhB) in aqueous medium. This suggested that the as-synthesized CdS MSs might be used as a photocatalyst to treat the organic pollutants under visible light irradiation. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.