Strategy for Encapsulation of CdS Quantum Dots into Zeolitic Imidazole Frameworks for Photocatalytic Activity

Ye Rim Son; Minseok Kwak; Songyi Lee; Hyun Sung Kim

doi:10.3390/nano10122498

Strategy for Encapsulation of CdS Quantum Dots into Zeolitic Imidazole Frameworks for Photocatalytic Activity

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2020 Dec 12;10(12):2498. doi: 10.3390/nano10122498.

Authors

Ye Rim Son¹, Minseok Kwak^{1

2}, Songyi Lee^{1

2}, Hyun Sung Kim¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Pukyong National University, Busan 48513, Korea.
² Department of Industry 4.0 Convergence Bionics Engineering, Pukyong National University, Yongso-ro, Nam-gu, Busan 48513, Korea.

Abstract

Encapsulating CdS quantum dots (QDs) into zeolitic imidazole framework-8 (ZIF-8) can offer several advantages for photocatalysis. Various types of capping agents have been used to encapsulate QDs into ZIF-8 nanopores. An effective method for encapsulating CdS QDs into ZIF-8 is to use 2-mercaptoimidazole as the capping agent. This is because 2-mercaptoimidazole is similar to the imidazolate ligands of ZIFs and can used for capping active species with simultaneous encapsulation during the crystal growth of ZIF-8. Compared to other widely used capping agents such as polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), using 2-mercaptoimidazole for encapsulating CdS QDs into ZIF-8 revealed photocatalytic effects along with the molecular sieving effect when using differently sized molecular redox mediators such as methyl viologen (MV²⁺) and diquat (DQ²⁺).

Keywords: cadmium sulfide; photocatalyst; quantum dot; zeolitic imidazole frameworks.