Zinc cadmium sulfide nanocrystals prepared in PAM water-soluble nanoreactors and their photocatalytic performance in photodegradation.

The ZnxCd1-xS nanocrystals with different Zn2+/Cd2+ratios were solvothermally incubated in water-soluble nanoreactors formed by inverse miniemulsion. Notably, Zn0.5Cd0.5S nanocrystals with larger grain sizes were obtained from polyacrylamide (PAM) nanoreactors, where the PAM solution served as a key component for precursor ripening. The miniemulsion-derived nanoreactors remained stable during nanocrystal incubation, with a size of approximately 160 nm. The obtained ZnxCd1-xS nanocrystals exhibited a cubic structure, and their band gap (Eg) was tunable from 3.83 eV (x= 1) to 2.64 eV (x= 0). The catalytic performance of the nanocrystals was optimized by adjusting both the Zn2+/Cd2+ratio and the PAM concentration in the nanoreactors. Specifically, Zn0.5Cd0.5S nanocrystals incubated in nanoreactors containing 10.0 mg g-1PAM achieved an enhanced grain size of 15 nm, displaying a tunable band gap of 2.58 eV and a weaker luminescence intensity. These nanocrystals exhibited the best catalytic degradation efficiency by balancing the light absorption and the photogenerated charge redox ability, thereby providing a selective strategy for the design of the advanced semiconductor materials.