Facile synthesis of ZnO/CdS@ZIF-8 core–shell nanocomposites and their applications in photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes

Abstract

Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIF) are attracting considerable attention for their applications in adsorbents/separation as well as catalysis. In this article, we proposed a simple strategy to fabricate semiconductor–ZIF core–shell nanocomposites, which exhibited remarkable coherent function for adsorption and photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants. The current nanocomposites were composed of ZnO/CdS and ZIF-8, where spindle-like ZnO nanoparticles not only acted as the seeding material but also worked as the Zn²⁺ source for the formation of ZIF-8. The as-prepared ZnO/CdS@ZIF-8 core–shell nanocomposites displayed distinct photocatalytic activity for methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (RhB) owing to the unique pore structure and thus absorption effect of the ZIF-8 shell. To this end, the ZnO/CdS@ZIF-8 core–shell nanocomposites could find important applications in photocatalytic degradation of pollutants.