Combustion synthesis of Zn1−xCdxS and its photodegradation performance of methylene blue

Zn 1− x Cd x S ( x =0–1.0) powders were synthesized by a simple combustion method using cadmium nitrate, zinc nitrate and thiourea as raw materials. The structures, morphologies, absorbance, luminescence and photocatalytic properties of the samples were studied by X-ray powder diffraction, transmission electron microscopy , ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometry and photoluminescence . The results show that all Zn 1− x Cd x S samples exhibit hexagonal structure and no metastable cubic phase is obtained. With increasing content of Cd, red-shifts are observed in both the absorption edges of UV–vis absorption spectra and emission bands of photoluminescence spectra. Among all Zn 1− x Cd x S samples, CdS shows the best visible-light photocatalytic performance due to its narrow bandgap.