Synthesis and characterization of CdS nanoparticle anchored Silica-Titania mixed Oxide mesoporous particles: Efficient photocatalyst for discoloration of textile effluent

An efficient photocatalyst consisting of CdS nanoparticle dispersed mesoporous silica-titania was prepared using amphiphilic triblock copolymer P123 as template and silica-titania sol–gel precursors. The CdS nanoparticle was incorporated into silica-titania mesoporous nanosturctures by post impregnation method. The synthesized catalyst has been characterized by FTIR, TEM, SEM, and EDAX analysis. The CdS nanoparticles incorporated silica-titania mesoporous particles exhibited an enhanced light harvesting, large surface area and excellent photocatalytic activity. Photocatalytic degradation experiments on methyleneblue solution at different pH of the medium revealed that, the catalyst ST0.5CdS0.2 is more effective in basic medium with a degradation efficiency of 98%. In addition, the catalyst is also tested for dye degradation against a raw textile dye effluent containing multiple dye molecules, and their results indicated that the raw effluent can be decolorized within 90min using ST0.5CdS0.2 catalyst.