Preparation of efficient cadmium sulfide nanofibers for hydrogen production using ethylenediamine (NH2CH2CH2NH2) as template

Agileo Hernández-Gordillo; Socorro Oros-Ruiz; Ricardo Gómez

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2015.03.052

Preparation of efficient cadmium sulfide nanofibers for hydrogen production using ethylenediamine (NH2CH2CH2NH2) as template

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2015 Aug 1:451:40-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2015.03.052. Epub 2015 Apr 3.

Authors

Agileo Hernández-Gordillo¹, Socorro Oros-Ruiz², Ricardo Gómez²

Affiliations

¹ Instituto de Investigaciones en Materiales, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito Exterior SN, Ciudad Universitaria, CP 04510 México, D.F., Coyoacán, Mexico. Electronic address: agileo12@hotmail.com.
² Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, Depto. de Química, Área de Catálisis, Grupo ECOCATAL, Av. San Rafael Atlixco No 186, México, D.F. 09340, Mexico.

PMID: 25875490
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2015.03.052

Abstract

The preparation of CdS was performed by the precipitation method using ethylenediamine as template and tetrahydrofuran, acetonitrile or butanol as organic solvents. The formation of CdS with hexagonal structure was observed by XRD due to the template effect. FTIR studies showed that the amount of the template linked to the surface of the CdS depends on the organic solvent used. TEM observations evidenced the formations of CdS nanofibers and the EDS analysis show the chemical composition of the surface. The photocatalytic activity of CdS nanofibers under blue light irradiation was strongly influenced by the amount of ethylenediamine template on the nanofiber surface. It was observed that when the amount of the template on the samples diminishes by the heat treatment, the photocatalytic activity is affected. The role of the ethylenediamine template in the mechanism for the H2 production reaction is discussed.

Keywords: CdS nanofiber; Ethylenediamine template; H(2) production; Visible light irradiation.