Abstract
An atmospheric plasma treatment strategy was developed to prepare two-dimensional (2D) molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) and graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nanosheets from (NH4)2MoS4 and bulk g-C3N4, respectively. The moderate temperature of plasma is beneficial for exfoliating bulk materials to thinner nanosheets. The thicknesses of as-prepared MoS2 and g-C3N4 nanosheets are 2–3 nm and 1.2 nm, respectively. They exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity on account of the nanosheet structure, larger surface area, more flexible photophysical properties, and longer charge carrier average lifetime. Under visible light irradiation, the hydrogen production rates of MoS2 and g-C3N4 by plasma were 3.3 and 1.5 times higher than the corresponding bulk materials, respectively. And g-C3N4 by plasma exhibited 2.5 and 1.3 times degradation rates on bulk that for methyl orange and rhodamine B, respectively. The mechanism of plasma preparation was proposed on account of microstructure characterization and online mass spectroscopy, which indicated that gas etching, gas expansion, and the repulsive force of electron play the key roles in the plasma exfoliation. Plasma as an environmentally benign approach provides a general platform for fabricating ultrathin nanosheet materials with prospective applications as photocatalysts for pollutant degradation and water splitting.
Highlights
Photocatalytic technology is a fascinating strategy in addressing energy shortages and environmental pollution [1,2,3,4,5]
Two-dimensional (2D) materials have a wide range of applications in the field of photocatalysis due to their special structure and excellent optical and electrical properties [6,7,8]. 2D nanosheets made of a few atomic layers are mainly synthesized from layered structural materials
MoS2, a typical transitional metal dichalcogenides with a sandwich layered structure, has been far and wide exploited in photocatalytic H2 production [26,27]. g-C3N4, a non-metal semiconductor with a grapheme-like layered structure that was successfully used in split water and degrade organic contaminants under visible light irradiation [28]
Summary
Photocatalytic technology is a fascinating strategy in addressing energy shortages and environmental pollution [1,2,3,4,5]. Wang et al utilized water plasma to prepare 2D layered double hydroxide nanosheets to improve the rate of oxygen evolution reaction [23]. Our group developed a way to prepare graphene using atmospheric plasma and proposed the preparation mechanism [25] Both MoS2 and g-C3N4, typical two-dimensional layered materials, are the most interesting photocatalysts. G-C3N4, a non-metal semiconductor with a grapheme-like layered structure that was successfully used in split water and degrade organic contaminants under visible light irradiation [28]. Their photocatalytic performance was limited for bare bulk structure [29,30,31]. We believe that the plasma method can be a universal method for two-dimensional material preparation
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