Synthesis of Ag2CdS2/Carbon Nanocomposites for Effective Solar-Driven Dye Photodegradation and Electrochemical Application

Abstract

The synthesis of Ag2CdS2/Carbon (SCS/C) nanocomposites was done using starch as a carbon source material.The surface of the nanoparticles was carbonized using the carbonization technique.The band gap energy of the SCS/C nanocomposites was found to be 2.3 eV.The prepared nanocomposites were well characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM).The elements present in the nanocomposites were confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS).Under natural sunlight irradiation, the photocatalytic activities of the sample were investigated by the degradation of dye solutions such as methylene blue (MB), rhodamine B (RhB), and methyl orange (MO).Degradation of the three dyes was achieved in a short time (30 min for MO and 60 min for MB and RhB).Kinetics studies revealed pseudo first order, and the nanocomposites demonstrated good recycleability.The redox behavior of these nanocomposites showed a negative oxidation potential (Epa = 0.041-0.089V), and the corresponding cathodic reduction peaks also appeared in the negative potential (0.58-0.94 V) with high peak-to-peak separation (Ep = 0.508-0.899V), and SCS/C nanocomposites showed good capacitance values.