Degradation of refractory pollutants under solar light irradiation by a robust and self-protected ZnO/CdS/TiO₂ hybrid photocatalyst

Photocatalyst plays a vital role in the photochemical water treatment. To improve the visible-light photoactivity of TiO₂ for refractory pollutant degradation, CdS/TiO₂ hybrids with different nanostructures have been prepared, but usually suffer from a low photocatalytic degradation efficiency and a rapid photocorrosion. In this work, we developed a synergistic ZnO/CdS/TiO₂ hybrid, which could act as a robust and self-protected photocatalyst for water purification without additional sacrificial reagents. This was attributed to the two different junction mechanisms in one single hybrid. Photons were selectively adsorbed by ZnO and CdS, then, the electrons with a low reductive activity in ZnO recombined directly with the holes with a low oxidative activity in CdS, whereas the holes with a high oxidative activity in ZnO and the electrons with a high reductive activity in CdS were captured for catalytic reaction. The superiority of the novel ZnO/CdS/TiO₂ hybrid over the traditional CdS/TiO₂ hybrid in both photocatalytic activity and anti-photocorrosion capacity was demonstrated in the degradation of Atrazine and Rhodamine B, two typical refractory organic pollutants, and the treatment of real textile wastewater under solar light irradiation. The developed ZnO/CdS/TiO₂ hybrid exhibited an excellent potential for the degradation of refractory pollutants, and provided a new way to advance intrinsically solar-susceptible catalyst for photochemical wastewater treatment.