Construction of Pd‐Co‐Doped CdS Heterojunctions as Efficient Platforms in Photocatalysis

In this work, we present the structural, optical and photocatalytic properties of CdS semiconducting nanostructures, doped with palladium‐ and cobalt‐based species. XRD analysis, corroborated by Raman and XPS, demonstrated the growth of CdS crystallites in the hexagonal structure, whereas solvothermal conversion of neat precursor metal salts resulted in the formation of metallic Pd and cobalt oxide, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy imaging certified the dendritic structure of hybrids, especially in the case where CdS was grown in the presence of either palladium‐ or cobalt‐based nanoparticles. XPS surface analysis revealed that a major fraction of metallic Pd nanoparticles was converted to PdO during the in situ growth of CdS nanoparticles. The oxidation of Pd nanoparticles could be ascribed to chemisorption of oxygen phases onto the metal surface. The presence of cocatalyst nanoparticles resulted in an appreciable shift of the absorption edge of the ternary hybrids by about 50 nm. The optimized hybrid was found to photodegrade Orange G dye almost quantitatively within 2 h, by simulated solar light irradiation. Scavenging experiments revealed that hydroxy radicals were the main transient intermediate, leading to the oxidative degradation of the dye. Efficient nanostructured heterojunctions: CdS/palladium/cobalt hybrids were readily prepared through a versatile hydrothermal process. The enhancement of photocatalytic activity towards the degradation of an organic dye originates from efficient carrier separation through either reductive as well as oxidative paths.