Cadmium sulfide with tunable morphologies: Preparation and visible-light driven photocatalytic performance

Wurtzite cadmium sulfide (CdS) with four kinds of morphologies including dendrites, flowers, multipods and spheres, were tunably prepared using a facile and simple hydrothermal route with an assistance of N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF). The formation mechanism of CdS with different morphologies was discussed based on the phase and microstructure characterization by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electronic microscopy (FE-SEM) with energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). The effect of morphology on the photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance was investigated using linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), photocurrent versus irradiation time curve (I-t) and electrochemical impedance spectroscope (EIS). The results show that the dendrite-like CdS exhibits the highest photocurrent density with 0.748 mA/cm2 at 0.253 V. The photodegradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) further proves the dendrite-like CdS possesses excellent photocatalytic (PC) performance, which could be mainly attributed to the unique hyperbranched structure, larger surface area and smaller crystal size.