Self assembled flower like CdS–ZnO nanocomposite and its photo catalytic activity

• Simple route to prepare unique flower like CdS–ZnO nanostructure.
• The evolution of complete self assembled growth mechanism has been proposed.
• Charge separation and charge transfer capability is supported by the PL study.
• The novel structure manifests strong photocatalytic activity.
• Applicable to a wide range of coupled system for photo conversion applications.

Self assembled flower like CdS–ZnO nanocomposite has been synthesized by a facile chemical route and the prepared materials have been investigated as catalyst in the photodegradation of rhodamine B (RhB) in aqueous solution facilitated by the effective charge transfer mechanism in this coupled semiconductor system. CdS has been grown first and then petal-like ZnO has been produced to assemble into a flower like nanostructure. XRD, SEM, TEM, EDX have been employed to study the structural, morphological and compositional details of this unique nanostructure. It is observed that a strong quenching of band-edge emission of CdS following the growth of ZnO petal on it which is evidence for the occurrence of charge transfer between CdS and ZnO. The strong photocatalytic activity of this novel nanostructure on RhB has been investigated in details.

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