Influence of calcination temperature on the photocatalytic performance of the hierarchical TiO2 pinecone-like structure decorated with CdS nanoparticles

Abstract Herein, a novel hierarchical TiO2 pinecone-like structure (TPS) has been successfully fabricated for the first time by self-assembling anodic oxidation methods on the Ti plate. Then it was constructed that a series of CdS-TPS nanocomposites with different cycles CdS modifying by a successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) after different temperature annealing in air. The structures and properties of the CdS-TPS were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Current-voltage (I-V), ultraviolet-visible (UV–vis/DRS). The results shown that the optical properties of the CdS-TPS could be rationally tailored by adjusting the CdS-modified cycles and annealing temperature, which significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity. To be used in photocatalytic organic pollutant removal after optimizing both the CdS modification cycles and annealing temperature. The 15-CdS-TPS-500 °C exhibited significantly improved photocatalytic activities of methyl orange (MO) degradation under simulated sunlight irradiation. With 180 min, 85% of the MO (0.05 mM/L, 5 mL) was photodegraded and its kinetic constant reached to 0.0104 min−1, which is the 3.0 times and 3.6 times quicker than that of 5-CdS-TPS-500 °C and 15-CdS-TPS-0 °C, respectively. This could be ascribed to the result of the synergy effects of the suitable quantity of CdS nanoparticles modifier, the special surface structure, excellent crystallinity, higher electrical conductivity, and band structure matching. The possible photocatalytic mechanism of the CdS-TPS sample is investigated as well.