• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.356-361
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• 2015

$Cd_{0.5}Zn_{0.5}S/ZnO$ composite photocatalysts were synthesized using the precipitation method and characterized by XRD, UV-vis DRS, PL and FE-SEM. Photocatalytic activities of the materials were evaluated by measuring the degradation of rhodamine B under visible light irradiation. Contrary to ZnO, $Cd_{0.5}Zn_{0.5}S/ZnO$ materials absorb visible light as well as UV and their absorption intensities in visible region increased with increasing the $Cd_{0.5}Zn_{0.5}S$ amount. The increment in the $Cd_{0.5}Zn_{0.5}S$ content in $Cd_{0.5}Zn_{0.5}S/ZnO$ also leads to reducing the particle size and consequently increasing the specific surface area. $Cd_{0.5}Zn_{0.5}S/ZnO$ materials with the larger $Cd_{0.5}Zn_{0.5}S$ content showed the higher activity in the photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B under visible light irradiation. Therefore, the heterojunction effect between $Cd_{0.5}Zn_{0.5}S$ and ZnO as well as the adsorption capacity seems to give important contributions to the photocatalytic activity of the $Cd_{0.5}Zn_{0.5}S/ZnO$.