Exploration of morphological, structural, and photocatalytic behaviours of MoS2/WO3 nanocomposites

Abstract

A lot of people are interested in hybrid nanostructures made of two-dimensional materials like transition metal dichalcogenides and transition metal oxides because they could be used as photocatalysts. This interest stems from their outstanding structural, electronic, and optical properties. The main objective of this paper is how to make a photocatalyst that works better by combining a special photocatalytic system made of MoS2/WO3 nanocomposites in an easy hydrothermal process. The crystalline structure of MoS2, WO3, and MoS2/WO3 nanocomposites was verified by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) investigation. Furthermore, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis showed the creation of highly pure MoS2 and MoS2/WO3 composites, which showed a clustering of several spherical nanorods. We performed photocatalytic experiments using methylene blue dye under visible light in the presence of MoS2, WO3, and MoS2/WO3 nanocomposites. We observed that the formation of heterojunction and the increase of active sites were the optimal parameters affecting the photodegradation of methylene blue. The degradation percentages were observed to be 59 %, 55 %, and 90 %, respectively, within 120 min of light irradiation. The results of consecutive experiments explicitly demonstrate the enrichment of the photocatalytic properties of the MoS2/WO3 nanorods. Furthermore, we thoroughly investigated and discussed the mechanism of photodegradation in the MoS2/WO3 nanocomposites.