MoS$_{2}$ nanosheets incorporated α-Fe$_{2}$O$_{3}$/ZnO nanocomposite with enhanced photocatalytic dye degradation and hydrogen production ability

Angkita Mistry Tama; Subrata Das; Sagar Dutta; M. D. I. Bhuyan; M. N. Islam; M. A. Basith

doi:10.1039/c9ra07526g

paper

MoS $_{2}$ nanosheets incorporated α-Fe $_{2}$ O $_{3}$ /ZnO nanocomposite with enhanced photocatalytic dye degradation and hydrogen production ability

arXiv:2111.07185 · doi:10.1039/c9ra07526g

Abstract

We have synthesized MoS $_{2}$ incorporated $α$ -Fe $_{2}$ O $_{3}$ /ZnO nanocomposites by the hydrothermal process. The effect of incorporating ultrasonically exfoliated MoS $_{2}$ on the photocatalytic performance of $α$ -Fe $_{2}$ O $_{3}$ /ZnO nanocomposites has been demonstrated. Structural, morphological and optical characteristics of the nanomaterials are investigated by performing Rietveld refinement of powder X-ray diffraction patterns, field emission scanning electron microscopy and UV-visible spectroscopy. The photoluminescence spectra of the nanocomposites show that the recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs is suppressed due to incorporating MoS $_{2}$ nanosheets. The ultrasonicated MoS $_{2}$ incorporated $α$ -Fe $_{2}$ O $_{3}$ /ZnO nanocomposite shows 91% and 83% efficiency to degrade RhB dye and antibiotic ciprofloxacin under solar illumination. Active species trapping experiments reveal that the hydroxyl radicals play a significant role in RhB degradation. Likewise, the dye degradation efficiency, the amount of hydrogen produced by this nanocomposite via photocatalytic water splitting is also higher as compared to non-ultrasonicated MoS $_{2}$ incorporated $α$ -Fe $_{2}$ O $_{3}$ /ZnO and $α$ -Fe $_{2}$ O $_{3}$ /ZnO nanocomposites as well as Degussa P25 titania nanoparticles. This indicates the promising potential of the incorporation of ultrasonicated MoS $_{2}$ with $α$ -Fe $_{2}$ O $_{3}$ /ZnO nanocomposite for generation of carbon-free hydrogen by water splitting. The substantial increase in the photocatalytic efficiency of $α$ -Fe $_{2}$ O $_{3}$ /ZnO after incorporation of ultrasonicated MoS $_{2}$ can be attributed to its favorable band structure, large surface to volume ratio, effective segregation and migration of photogenerated electron-hole pairs at the interface of heterojunction and the active edge sites provided by few-layer MoS $_{2}$ nanosheets.

MoS $_{2}$ nanosheets incorporated α-Fe $_{2}$ O $_{3}$ /ZnO nanocomposite with enhanced photocatalytic dye degradation and hydrogen production ability

Abstract

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MoS2​ nanosheets incorporated α-Fe2​O3​/ZnO nanocomposite with enhanced photocatalytic dye degradation and hydrogen production ability

Abstract

References in corpus (2)

Cited by in corpus (5)

MoS $_{2}$ nanosheets incorporated α-Fe $_{2}$ O $_{3}$ /ZnO nanocomposite with enhanced photocatalytic dye degradation and hydrogen production ability