Acetylene black quantum dots as a bridge for few-layer g-C3N4/MoS2 nanosheet architecture: 0D–2D heterojunction as an efficient visible-light-driven photocatalyst

Abstract

Great progress has been made based on photocatalytic theory research in the past few years. There is, however, still a long way to go to popularize the application of photocatalytic materials. Here, we introduce a simple synthetic 0D–2D (D: dimensional) heterogeneous material with more efficient photocatalytic degradation. We construct acetylene black (AB) as a bridge to connect a graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nano-layer and two-dimensional MoS2 sandwich structure based on a simple hydrothermal synthesis and ultrasonic chemical loading. Loading 1% AB onto 2D g-C3N4/(x%)MoS2 not only accelerates the transfer of charge, but also reduces electron–hole recombination, which increases the photocatalytic efficiency per unit time. Studies have shown that the degradation rate of the ternary g-C3N4/AB/3.1%MoS2 catalytic materials can reach 94.29%, which is obviously higher than that of the pure g-C3N4 (80%) or MoS2 (51.74%) in degradation of methyl blue within 130 min. In this work, the ternary heterogeneous catalyst realizes the complementary characteristics between materials, broadens the photocatalytic properties and accelerates the degradation rate of pollutants, and provides a feasible solution to environmental friendliness.