Rapid Synthesis of ZnS-CuS Nanocomposite and its Photocatalytic Application for Methylene Blue Removal from Aqueous Media

A microwave approach is being presented for the synthesis of sulfide nanostructures as well as two component composites between them. ZnS, CuS and heterojunction mixture between the two were obtained using the relative metal acetates and thiourea, i.e., sulfur source in N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF), which was utilized as both solvent and surface binding agent under microwave irradiation for just 20 seconds. The samples were characterized using field-emission scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X ray, X-ray diffraction and diffuse reflectance spectrophotometry. Photo-degradation of methylene blue as a common pollutant was investigated as an application for the synthesized materials. Removal efficiency of about 60% after 30 minutes of contact in darkness and 60 minutes of illumination using low-power UVB light remained fairly unchanged after 5 running cycles. The obtained composite between ZnS and CuS is a p-n type heterojunction able to show better photocatalytic activity compared to each of the constituting sulfides alone.