The Photodegradation Performance of Phosphotungstic Acid/CdS Composite Materials to Organic Dyes

Abstract

In this paper, CdS sample and phosphotungstic acid/CdS composite materials were prepared by hydrothermal synthesis and impregnation method, respectively. These samples were characterized by FT-IR, XRD and TEM. The characteristic peaks of phosphotungstic acid and CdS appeared in IR spectra of phosphotungstic acid /CdS composite samples. Using the degradation of Rhodamine B and Methylene blue solutions as the model reaction, respectively, the photocatalytic degradation performance of CdS, phosphotungstic acid and their composite samples was discussed under the irradiation of UV light or sunlight. The results showed the degradation effect of phosphotungstic acid /CdS to Rhodamine B and Methylene blue solution was better than CdS under the irradiation of 250 W mercury lamp or sunlight. Composite sample 1 had the best photocatalytic activity and its degradation rate on Rhodamine B was 85.2 % at 120 mins with pH 3.5 under sunlight, and the degradation rate of Methylene blue reached about 92.1% at 120 mins with pH 6.0 under sunlight.