Photodegradation of textile dye Rhodamine B over a novel biopolymer–metal complex wool-Pd/CdS photocatalysts under visible light irradiation

[Display omitted] •A novel biopolymer–metal complex wool-Pd/CdS photocatalyst was prepared.•Wool-Pd/CdS photocatalyst exhibited effective photodegradation of Rh B under visible light irradiation.•The recycled wool-Pd catalyst improve the degradation of Rh B under visible light irradiation. A novel biopolymer–metal complex wool-Pd/CdS photocatalysts were prepared and exhibited high activity for photodegradation of Rh B under visible light irradiation. The wool-Pd could not only enhance the utilization rate of noble metal Pd but also significantly improve the activity of dye degradation. Wool-Pd was able to introduce Pd and PdS to effectively prohibit the recombination of photogenerated electrons and holes. The optimal weight percentage of wool-Pd in the photocatalyst was found to be 0.5wt%, which resulted in a good result of degradation of Rh B under visible light. It is obviously better in the catalyst efficiency than pure CdS. The photocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction, diffuse reflectance UV–vis spectroscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS) studies, transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In a word, the prepared novel biopolymer–metal complex wool-Pd/CdS photocatalysts not only improve the degradation efficiency of Rh B, but also has a good advantage of recycling and cost-effective. It will have a good application prospect. In addition, the possible degradation pathway of Rh B was proposed in this paper.