Visible-light-driven photocatalytic properties and electronic structures of nickel sulfide nanoflowers

Abstract

Nickel sulfide (NiS) nanoflowers with the thickness of ca. 5-10 nm and size up to several hundreds of nanometers were synthesized via a facile polyol refluxing process under the open-air condition. The photocatalytic properties of NiS nanoflowers were evaluated by the decomposition ratio of MB was up to nearly 98% after 3 h visible light irradiation, indicating the NiS nanoflowers were good candidates for high performance photocatalysts. Meanwhile, the influencing factor of the photocatalytic reaction had also been studied by calculating the electronic structure of NiS nanoflowers. The band structure indicates that charge transfer upon photoexcitation occurs from the S 3p orbital to the empty Ni orbital.