Hydrothermal growth of TiO(2) nanowire membranes sensitized with CdS quantum dots for the enhancement of photocatalytic performance

In this paper, TiO(2) nanowires (NWs) on Ti foils were prepared using a simple hydrothermal approach and annealing treatment. CdS quantum dots (QDs) were assembled onto the crystallized TiO(2) NWs by sequential chemical bath deposition. Ultraviolet-visible absorption spectra showed that CdS adds bands in the visible to the TiO(2) absorption and exhibited a broad absorption band in the visible region, which extended the scope of absorption spectrum and helped improve the photocatalytic degradation efficiency. The results of photocatalytic experiment revealed that CdS-TiO(2) NWs possessed higher photocatalytic activities toward methyl orange than pure TiO(2) nanowires. The degradation efficiency of 96.32% after ten cycles indicated that the as-prepared CdS-TiO(2) composite exhibited excellent long-time recyclable ability and can be reused for the degradation of contaminants.