Hydrothermal synthesis, photo-electrochemical and photocatalytic activity of SnS2/CdS nanocomposites

SnS2/CdS composites with different mole ratios were prepared by hydrothermal methods. The effects of different ratios on the microstructure, morphology, optical, photo-electrochemical, and photocatalytic properties of SnS2/CdS samples were studied. The photocatalytic activity of SnS2/CdS composites was evaluated by simulating visible light degradation of methyl orange (MO) dye. Experimental results demonstrate that hexagonal pencil-shaped nanorod CdS and flower-like morphology SnS2 are wurtzite structures. SnS2/CdS nanocomposites showed excellent visible light absorption. Nyquist EIS and transient photocurrent density showed that the composites exhibit more effective electron–hole separation and faster interface charge transfer under simulated sunlight. Within 120 min, the degradation rate of SnS2/CdS photocatalyst reached 85.3%, and its reaction rate constant is the largest, which is 9.2 times and 5.32 times that of pure CdS and SnS2 samples, respectively. Also, it has good photocatalytic recyclability, the photocatalytic degradation rate of the fifth cycle can still reach 80%.