Microwave-assisted deposition of metal sulfide/oxide nanocrystals onto a 3D hierarchical flower-like TiO2 nanostructure with improved photocatalytic activity

An effective and general microwave-assisted strategy has been developed for deposition of monodisperse metal sulfide/oxide nanocrystals on the surface of a type of 3D hierarchical flower-like nanostructure to form TiO2-based metal sulfide/oxide hetero-nanostructures. We choose the as-prepared TiO2–CdS hetero-nanostructure as an example, which exhibits obviously enhanced photocatalytic activity for the photodegradation of methyl orange (MO) compared with TiO2 nanoflowers, P25 and pure CdS under visible-light irradiation.