Plant Mediated Synthesis of CdS Nanoparticles, their characterization and application for photocatalytic degradation of toxic organic dye

In this work, an environmentally friendly and cheap method for the synthesis of CdS nanoparticles for the first time using an extract of Dicliptera Roxburghiana is presented. The present method is found to be reproducible and rapid. Structural analysis is carried out by UV-visible, FTIR, XRD, EDX, SEM, and TEM. XRD and TEM analysis revealed that the nanoparticles have spherical shape and size in the range of 2.5-8nm. FTIR studies showed the presence of functional groups which belong to the phytochemicals of plant extract that surround the nanoparticle preventing them from agglomeration. Thus the prepared CdS NPs exhibit excellent stability even after 2 months. The optical band gap was calculated using Tauc Plot i.e. 3.31 eV. Their activity as photocatalysts against an aqueous solution of methylene blue degradation under solar irradiation in a comparative manner is also reported and the particle has a % degradation of 87.12% in just 120 minutes under solar light irradiation.