Enhancing the photocatalytic activity of CdS nanorods for selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol by coating amorphous TiO2 shell layer

• 1D core–shell structural CdS@TiO2 was fabricated by a sol–gel method.
• Thickness of TiO2 shell layer can be tuned by changing the additional amount of ammonia.
• a-TiO2 shell layer promotes the separation of electron–hole pairs.
• CdS@a-TiO2 showed improved activity for selectively oxidizing benzyl alcohol.

One dimension (1D) core–shell structural CdS@TiO2 was fabricated by a modified sol–gel method. The thickness of amorphous TiO2 (a-TiO2) layer was adjusted by changing the amount of ammonia. Although a-TiO2 shell layer diminishes the visible light absorption in a certain extent, it largely increases the surface area of photocatalyst and effectively promotes the separation rate of photogenerated electron–hole pairs. It was revealed that a-TiO2 shell layer can effectively enhance the photocatalytic activity of CdS NRs for benzyl alcohol (BA) to benzaldehyde (BAD) transformation. Moreover, the core–shell structural CdS@a-TiO2 showed high stability and reusability for the selective oxidation of BA.

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