Decorated ternary Pd@CdS@Fe3O4
nanoarchitectures are synthesized by judicious loading of CdS
nanoparticles without functionalizing the surface of the base materials,
i.e., Fe3O4 and CdS. Here we have adopted a unique method to prepare Fe3O4 nanoparticles. In this ternary composite ferromagnetic Fe3O4 behaves
as the catalyst carrier, CdS is used as semiconductor, and loaded Pd
due to its high electron affinity behaves as a electron scavenger. CdS
inherits visible light absorbing capability. Here Pd2+ is reduced to Pd upon deposition onto the CdS nanoparticles by the anionic S2−.
Then the ternary composite exhibits pronounced photocatalytic activity
toward Rhodamine B oxidation under visible light irradiation in the
yellow region. This composite happens to be much more efficient than
that of pure CdS and CdS@Fe3O4 composite. Metallic
Pd, due to its high electron withdrawing property, uptakes the
electrons from the conduction band of CdS and increases the oxidative
power of CdS. Because of the presence of Fe3O4 in
the composite, the catalyst shows ferromagnetism, and thus after the
photocatalytic experiments the catalyst is easily isolated from the
reaction mixture. The efficiency of the photocatalyst decreases after
five cycles because of the disintegration of the particle. The ternary
composite serves as a convenient and efficient photocatalyst for
degradation of dye molecules leading to the purification of water.