Novel binary photocatalysts containing polyoxometalate immobilized on CdS nanorods surface for enhance photocatalytic performance.

[Display omitted] • Novel CdS-NRs@PW 12 O 40 photocatalyst was synthesized by a simple deposition method. • H 3 PW 12 O 40 facilitates the separation of charge carriers and extends the visible light absorption of CdS-NRs. • All CdS-NRs@PW 12 O 40 composite achieved higher photocatalytic activity. • The photocatalytic mechanism of superior photocatalyst was discussed. In this work, different types of Polyoxometalates (POMs), such as H 3 PW 12 O 40 , H 3 PMo 12 O 40 and TBA [MnMo 6 ] were successfully deposited on CdS nanorods (CdS-NRs) through electrostatic interaction between CdS-NRs and Polyoxometalate. The diffuse reflectance spectra after UV–visible results showed that the POMs enhanced the visible light absorption range of CdS-NRs, which ensured effective light absorption for composites. Photocurrent response results indicated that the carriers separation efficiency of composites had much higher than bare CdS-NRs. The prepared photocatalysts were further subjected for photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants and around 98% of dye has been removed from the system. The Radical trapping experiments further clarify that that h+ and O 2 − are the major factors in photocatalytic pollutant degradation. To investigate the stability, POM loaded CdS-NRs composite was repeated four times for photocatalysis, which shows high efficiency till fourth cycle. The aforesaid results indicate that, POMs on the surface of CdS-NRs materials effectively enhance the photocatalytic performance and CdS-NRs provide a suitable support for POMs to modify them for heterogeneous catalysis. This work opens a new and feasible pathway to design the heterostructure photocatalysts using POMs and sulfides for high-efficiency environmental purification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]