Surfactant-Modified CdS/CdCO 3 Composite Photocatalyst Morphology Enhances Visible-Light-Driven Cr(VI) Reduction Performance.

The surfactant modification of catalyst morphology is considered as an effective method to improve photocatalytic performance. In this work, the visible-light-driven composite photocatalyst was obtained by growing CdS nanoparticles in the cubic crystal structure of CdCO 3 , which, after surfactant modification, led to the formation of CdCO 3 elliptical spheres. This reasonable composite-structure-modification design effectively increased the specific surface area, fully exposing the catalytic-activity check point. Cd 2+ from CdCO 3 can enter the CdS crystal structure to generate lattice distortion and form hole traps, which productively promoted the separation and transfer of CdS photogenerated electron-hole pairs. The prepared 5-CdS/CdCO 3 @SDS exhibited excellent Cr(VI) photocatalytic activity with a reduction efficiency of 86.9% within 30 min, and the reduction rate was 0.0675 min -1 , which was 15.57 and 14.46 times that of CdS and CdCO 3 , respectively. Finally, the main active substances during the reduction process, the photogenerated charge transfer pathways related to heterojunctions and the catalytic mechanism were proposed and analyzed.