Synthesis of CdWO4nanorods and investigation of the photocatalytic activity

What is it about?

CdWO4 nanorod photocatalysts were synthesized by a hydrothermal method. CdWO4 nanorod photocatalysts showed highly efficient photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methylene blue under ultraviolet light irradiation. On the basis of the experiment results, the difference in photocatalytic activities of the samples was mainly attributed to surface area, surface hydroxyl groups and defects which can act as inactivation centers. Kinetic studies using radical scavenger technologies suggested that OH radicals were the dominant photooxidants.

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Why is it important?

The band-gap for CdWO4 was as broad as 3.8 eV, which was much larger than 3.2 eV for TiO2 and thus seems to indicate that the photo-absorption could only be limited to wavelengths shorter than that of TiO2. Nevertheless, it was well established that the broader band-gap was highly probable to give strongerredox ability that allowed higher photocatalytic performance.Therefore, CdWO4 represented an example of apotential highly efficient photocatalytic material.

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