Hierarchically, Low Band Gap Nanohybrid InVO4-CdS Heterojunction for Visible Light-Driven Toxic Organic Dye Degradations

Balachandran Subramanian; Zhongshan Xu; Kumaravel Jeeva Jothi; Emad Makki; Selvamani Muthamizh; Dhilip Kumar Rajaiah; Natarajan Prakash; Nagarani Sandran; Jayant Giri; Feng Wang; Mingshu Yang

doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c08850

Hierarchically, Low Band Gap Nanohybrid InVO₄-CdS Heterojunction for Visible Light-Driven Toxic Organic Dye Degradations

ACS Omega. 2024 May 8;9(20):21864-21878. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c08850. eCollection 2024 May 21.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physiology, Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Saveetha University, Chennai 600 077, Tamil Nadu, India.
² Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Science, CAS Key Laboratory of Engineering Plastics, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering and Islamic Architecture, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah 24382, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Ocean and Resources Engineering, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, United States.
⁵ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Ulsan, Daehakro 93, Namgu, Ulsan 44610, Republic of Korea.
⁶ Division of Chemistry, Department of Science and Humanities, Saveetha School of Engineering, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Saveetha University, Thanadalam 600056, Tamil Nadu, India.
⁷ Department of Environmental Engineering and Management, Chaoyang University of Technology, Taichung 41349, Taiwan.
⁸ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yeshwantrao Chavan College of Engineering, Nagpur 441110, Maharashtra, India.

Abstract

The synthesis of InVO₄-CdS heterojunction photocatalysts has been achieved by a novel two-step approach, including a microwave-assisted technique, followed by a moderate hydrothermal method, marking the first successful instance of such a synthesis. X-ray diffraction, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, elemental color mapping, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, Raman analysis, photoluminescence, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller were employed to investigate the crystal structures, surface morphologies and particle sizes, chemical compositions, and optical characteristics of the as-synthesized materials. The research results indicated that the heterojunction InVO₄-CdS, as synthesized, consisted of InVO₄ microrods with an average size of around 15 nm and cadmium sulfide (CdS) microflowers with a diameter of 1.5 μm. Furthermore, all of the heterojunctions had favorable photoabsorption properties throughout the visible-light spectrum. The photocatalytic efficiency of the samples obtained was thoroughly assessed by the degradation of acid violet 7 (AV 7) under visible light irradiation with a wavelength greater than 420 nm. The photocatalytic efficiency for the decomposition of AV 7 was greatly enhanced in the InVO₄-CdS (IVCS) heterojunctions when compared to prepared bare InVO₄ and CdS. Additionally, it was observed that the composite material consisting of IVCS 3 wt % InVO₄ combined with CdS exhibited the most significant enhancement in catalytic effectiveness for the photodegradation of AV 7 dye. Specifically, the catalytic performance of this composite material was found to be around 69.4 and 76.2 times greater than that of pure InVO₄ and CdS, respectively. Furthermore, the experimental procedure including active species trapping provided evidence that h⁺ and •O₂^- radicals were the primary active species involved in the photocatalytic reaction process. Additionally, a potential explanation for the improved photocatalytic activity of the InVO₄-CdS heterojunction was presented, taking into account the determination of band positions.