4. Conclusions
(ZnO) (CdO)x nanofibers were fabricated by electrospinning 1−x
of the PVA/zinc acetate/cadmium nitrate precursors with subse- quent annealing in air at 480 ◦ C. The “as spun” samples were annealed at different annealing rates of 3 and 20◦C/min. As observed in the TGA, retardation of the complete decomposition of samples occurred under higher annealing rate due to the heat transfer limitations. XRD analysis indicated an increase in the peak intensity and average crystallite size leading to crystallinity improvement by higher annealing rate. Addition of CdO to the ZnO nanofibers resulted in band gap narrowing and exhibited a better photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation. Pho- tocatalytic activity enhancement of the MB degradation on the samples prepared at higher annealing rate was observed under both UV and visible illumination. Further increasing the amount of CdO caused deterioration of dye decomposition under the UV illumi- nation owing to the band gap position with respect to ZnO, but, an improved photocatalytic activity achieved by increasing CdO concentration under the visible light.