CdS nanorods along with nanostrips and plates have been prepared on a large scale by the solvothermal route using the precursor cadmium oxalate under mild conditions with ethylene glycol as the solvent and (NH4)2S as the sulfiding agent, without using catalysts, surfactants or template. The aspect ratio of the rods varied from 3 to 30. Characterization has been done by TEM, HR-TEM, EDX, HR-SEM, XRD, BET surface area, UV-vis absorption, photoluminescence and fluorescence studies. Photo-catalytic H2 production activity was tested with as-synthesized CdS, calcined CdS, noble metal loaded CdS and for bulk CdS. The nanorods being formed are used as such for H2 production. The as-synthesized CdS is found to have very good H2 production capacity compared to that of the bulk CdS. Upon Pt loading much enhanced activity was observed in the rate of hydrogen production. © 2000 IOP Publishing Ltd.

C. M. Janet

Ram Prasad Viswanath

CADMIUM OXALATE

SOLVOTHERMAL ROUTES

SULFIDING AGENTS

Aspect ratio

Cadmium sulfide

Energy dispersive spectroscopy

Ethylene

Hydrogen inorganic compounds

Photocatalysis

photoluminescence

Surface active agents

Transmission electron microscopy

X ray diffraction analysis

Nanostructured materials

IIT Madras is a public technical and research university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Founded in 1959, it is recognised as an Institute of National Importance.

IIT Madras has been ranked as the top engineering institute in India for four years in a row by the National Institutional Ranking Framework of the MHRD

It currently offers undergraduate, postgraduate and research degrees across 16 disciplines in Engineering, Sciences, Humanities and Management. About 596 faculty belonging to science and engineering departments and centres of the Institute are engaged in teaching, research and industrial consultancy.

IIT Madras

Large scale synthesis of CdS nanorods and its utilization in photo-catalytic H2 production

Nanotechnology

Two wet chemical methods, namely, wet etching (heterogeneous) and chemical precipitation (homogeneous), have been exploited for the formation of hierarchical ZnO architectures without any specific templates, catalysts, or capping agents. As-synthesized ZnO have been extensively characterized by X-ray diffraction, UV-visible absorbance studies, Fourier transform infrared analysis, scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive analysis of X-rays, selected area electron diffraction, photoluminescence (PL), and textural analysis. Wet etching resulted in the formation of self-assembled hexagonal plates with a disordered superlattice-type texture and ultimately ended up in crystallites with high-defect concentration showing a red PL emission. Mechanistic aspects of the growth process in both the methods have been analyzed, and a rational explanation is presented for their observed morphologies. ZnO prepared by both methods have been tested for their photocatalytic water splitting abilities in producing H2. Crystalline, spectral, textural, and activity analyses have been carried out for commercial ZnO for a comparison. Pt loaded ZnO was used for the concurrent hydrogen generation and dinitrogen fixation yielding a maximum of 86 μmol of ammonia/(h/0.1 g of catalyst), thus achieving the activation of N2 at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. © 2010 American Chemical Society.

Journal of Physical Chemistry C

Heterogeneous wet chemical synthesis of superlattice-type hierarchical ZnO architectures for concurrent H2 production and N2 reduction

2013 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition

Bidirectional soft-switched AC/AC high frequency link converter

Synthesis of CdS nanocrystals based on low-temperature thermolysis of one single-source organometallic precursor

Journal of Molecular Catalysis A: Chemical

Characterization and photocatalytic mechanism of nanosized CdS coupled TiO2 nanocrystals under visible light irradiation

Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China

Synthesis of single crystalline CdS nanowires with polyethylene glycol 400 as inducing template

Langmuir

Homogeneously Distributed CdS Nanoparticles in Nafion Membranes:  Preparation, Characterization, and Photocatalytic Properties

Journal	Nanotechnology
ISSN	09574484
Open Access	No