GSH-assisted hydrothermal synthesis of MnxCd1−xS solid solution hollow spheres and their application in photocatalytic degradation

A series of MnxCd1−xS (MCS) solid solutions hollow spheres (x=0.0, 0.20, 0.33, 0.50 and 0.67) have been synthesized with the assistance of l-Glutathione (GSH) by a simple hydrothermal route for the first time. Different characterization techniques, including X-Ray diffraction (XRD), atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area (BET), UV–vis and diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS) are performed to investigate the structural and optical properties of the as-prepared samples. The experiment of rhodamine B (RhB) decoloration indicates that all the MCS samples show higher photo-catalytic activities than commercial CdS under visible light irradiation. Among them, the Mn0.33Cd0.67S exhibits the highest photo-catalytic activity. The superior photo-catalytic activity of MCS samples may be attributed predominantly to the synergistic effect of the appropriate band-gap structure as well as the special hollow spherical morphology which makes MCS samples have the ability to harvest exciting visible-light due to multiple scattering within the interior space. Furthermore, the Mn0.33Cd0.67S shows well stability, the photo-catalytic activities do not decrease significantly after six recycles. The work may open a novel strategy to fabricate multi-component chalcogenide solid solutions hollow spheres.