Cadmium sulfide decorated with carbon nanoparticles from peanut shells: An efficient photocatalyst

Abstract

Carbon decorated cadmium sulfide nanoparticles have been synthesized by chemical precipitation method in aqueous medium using dichloroacetic acid as a complexing agent to study their optical and photocatalytic properties. Carbon nanoparticles have been prepared from waste peanut shells by simple pyrolysis method. The as-prepared materials have been characterized by XRD analysis, UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, spectrofluorometer, FTIR and BET analysis. SEM and TEM images indicate nano crystallites with spherical agglomeration of average 40 nm size. Band gap energy for pure CdS is observed in the order of 2.4 eV. As prepared carbon decorated CdS nanoparticles with increased surface area efficiently catalyzed the photodegradation of Rhodamine B dye solution under sunlight irradiation than pure CdS.