Iron-Doped Cadmium Sulfide/Graphene Oxide (Cd(1-x)Fe(x)S/GO) Nanocomposites for Photocatalytic Degradation of Toxic Pollutants

Abstract

Heterogeneous photocatalysis has been widely explored as a promising solution for dye degradation due to its cost-effectiveness, ease of recovery, and use of green technology. Precisely, iron-doped cadmium sulfide (CdS) exhibits greater efficiency because of its higher charge separation, more electron transfer efficiency, and adsorption under visible region. In this study, two different ratios of iron-doped cadmium sulfide (Cd_(1-x)Fe_(x)S/GO) nanocomposites such as Cd_0.95Fe_0.05S/GO and Cd_0.90Fe_0.10S/GO were synthesized using the coprecipitation method and characterized with UV-Vis DRS, XRD, FT-IR, Raman, XPS, and HR-TEM. The nanocomposites have been employed to degrade the methyl orange under visible region and optimize the dopant ratio, amount of catalyst, and pH. From the results, it is observed that the composition with a high percentage of iron-doped CdS such as Cd_0.90Fe_0.10S/GO displayed better photocatalytic properties and improved the optimum ratio (0.9:0.1 for Cd:Fe). This may be attributed to the highest charge separation, increased number of defective sites, and enhanced visible-range adsorption owing to Fe doping. In addition to that, doping results reduce the band gap and size of the nanoparticles. It also increases recycling efficiency, reaching 93% after 10 cycles.