Hydrothermal preparation, characterization and photocatalytic properties of C, N co-doped ZnO/ZnS composites

C, N, S co-doped ZnO/ZnS composites were prepared by hydrothermal method using ZnSO4 and L-cysteine as raw materials, and investigated by UV-vis DRS, XRD, XPS. The results showed that C, N, S have successfully doped onto ZnO and substituted O of crystal lattice during hydrothermal process. The resulting co-doped ZnO composites exhibit significantly higher photocatalytic activity (45%) than that of pure ZnO (<5%) for degradation of reactive brilliant blue KN-R aqueous solution under simulative solar irradiation. The enhancement of photocatalytic performance of co-doped composites can be attributed to the reducing of electron-hole pair recombination and narrowed band gap.