Shape induced (spherical, sheets and rods) optical and magnetic properties of CdS nanostructures with enhanced photocatalytic activity for photodegradation of methylene blue dye under ultra-violet irradiation

CdS nanostructures of different shapes such as, nanoparticles (NPs), nanosheets (NS) and nanorods (NRs) have been synthesized by one step chemical solvothermal method. The synthesized samples were characterized by X-ray diffractometer (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, UV–visible (UV-VIS) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy (RS) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) techniques. The effect of shape on optical and magnetic properties of CdS nanostructures was studied. The optical band gap and emission spectra are found to be shape dependent. CdS NRs were found to have high saturation (Ms) magnetization than that of CdS NPs and NS. The role of shape on photocatalytic performance of CdS NPs, NS and NRs was investigated by monitoring the photodegradation of methylene blue (MB) dye under the UV irradiation of wavelength 365 nm. The lower recombination rate of electron-hole pairs and larger surface area as reactive facets for adsorption of MB dye molecules in CdS NS are mainly lead to the better photocatalytic performance of CdS NS compared to NPs and NRs. - Highlights: • Synthesis of CdS nanostructures with different shapes (spherical, rod and sheet) by easy and low cost solvothermal method. • Shape induced optical and magnetic properties of CdS nanostructures have been investigated. • The shapes of nanostructures play an important role for photocatalytic performance of CdS nanostructures.