Preparation of cotton cellulose nanofibers/ZnO/CdS nanocomposites and its photocatalytic activity

The ZnO/CdS nanocomposites have been successfully synthesized on the electrospun cotton cellulose nanofibers (CCNFs). ZnO nanorods (70–80 nm in diameter and 1 μm in length) are uniformly grown on the CCNFs by a simple hydrothermal method firstly and then different amount of CdS nanoparticles (20–30 nm in diameter) are loaded on the ZnO nanorods by the chemical bath deposition method. The visible light photocatalytic activity of ZnO/CdS nanocomposites is investigated by degradation of Rhodamine B under visible light irradiation, and it demonstrates that the photocatalytic performance of this composites is significantly enhanced compared with that of pure ZnO. Furthermore, the relatively narrow band gap and novel nanostructure of the composites are considered as the main reasons of this enhancement.