Metal Doped-MoS2/g-C3N4 Nanocomposites for Antibiotics Degradation with Photo-Fenton Reaction Process: Defect Engineering, Synergistic Effects, and Degradation Mechanisms

Abstract

Currently, the energy crisis and environmental pollutions due to the growth of industrialization and urbanization become gradually a prominent and serious issue. Due to these reasons, we aimed to design photoactive metal-doped MoS2/g-C3N4 nanocomposites photocatalysts for the degradation of antibiotics. The degradation of organic pollutants with photocatalysis is considered as green, ecofriendly, economical, and promising methods. Herein, ultrathin g-C3N4 was prepared with simple method and combined with metal-doped MoS2 (Mg-doped MoS2) with varying the amounts of dopants. The prepared photocatalyst materials were tested for the degradation of ciprofloxacin in the photo-Fenton reaction process. The optimum amount of metal-doped MoS2/g-C3N4 nanocomposites photocatalysts showed enhanced catalytic performance and degrades 72% of ciprofloxacin while 52 and 48 % of degradations were achieved with MoS2 and g-C3N4 catalysts, respectively. Here, the key significant problems of the individual components were solved via synergistic effects in the photocatalytic degradation system. The results also offer an opportunity to enhance the electronic structures of the crystalline materials. Moreover, the metal-doping will also create defects on the MoS2 and improves the charge transfer ability of the photocatalyst. The results proved that the metal-doped MoS2/g-C3N4 nanocomposites photocatalysts could be a promising photo-Fenton catalyst system in the environmental remediation.