Facile synthesis of reduced graphene oxide/CdS nanowire composite aerogel with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity

Developing a high-efficient, low-cost visible-light-responsive photocatalyst is still a challenge in environmental remediation. Here, a three-dimensional (3D) porous architecture named reduced graphene oxide/CdS nanowire (RGO/CdS) aerogel was constructed by a facile two-step approach through coupling graphene with one-dimensional CdS nanowires (CdS NWs). A variety of characterization methods displayed that the resultant RGO/CdS aerogels were embedded with large amounts of CdS NWs with an average length and width of ∼ 2.9 μm and ∼ 60 nm, respectively, which would maximize the specific surface area that in turn markedly facilitate the transportation of photogenerated charge carriers and strong adsorption of organic pollutants. Moreover, the visible-light photocatalytic experiments demonstrated that the RGO/CdS aerogel exhibited a higher degradation rate (96.6%) for methylene blue (MB) degradation compared with that of bare CdS NWs or pure RGO xerogel. In this proposed study, a photocatalytic mechanism indicates that the enhanced photocatalytic activity of the 3D framework might contribute potentially to generate synergetic effect of CdS NWs into the space of graphene sheets.