Production of solar hydrogen through photocatalysis by CdS and CdS/ZnS modified by Pt, Ag2S and Si

Department of Chemistry, Alipurduar College, Alipurduar-736 121, West Bengal, India E-mail : degobinda@yahoo.com Manuscript received 30 September 2008, accepted 1 October 2008 Photocatalytic production of solar hydrogen using CdS suspensions in aqueous solution containing Na2SNa2SO3 has been studied. CdS prepared from different sources show different photocatalytic activity towards generation of hydrogen. CdS alone as well as modified by doping materials such as Pt, Ag2S and Si and mixing with ZnS has been investigated. When unmodified CdS is mixed with ZnS, the photocatalytic efficiency of CdS is enhanced and becomes maximum at a particular composition. When CdS is doped, the efficiency increases and in each case the best result is obtained at different particular composition