Novel MnCo2O4/YVO4 heterostructure for promoting photocatalytic oxidative desulfurization of thiophene under visible light

Abstract

In this work, for the first time, the photocatalytic oxidative desulfurizing of thiophene through exposure to visible light was performed on mesoporous MnCo2O4/YVO4 heterojunctions. Mesoporous YVO4 nanocrystals were combined with MnCo2O4 nanoparticles (NPs) to construct MnCo2O4/YVO4 heterostructure candidates using an easy sol-gel approach. The constructed mesoporous YVO4 with a tetragonal structure has a large surface area of approximately 200.0 m2 g−1. Within 90-min visible light exposure, the 9.0 wt% MnCo2O4/YVO4 nanocomposite photocatalyst exhibited 100.0 % desulfurization efficacy, which was ∼25.0 folds greater than occurred using the unmodified YVO4 (only 4.0 %). Notably, the 9.0 wt% MnCo2O4/YVO4 photocatalyst displayed a desulfurization rate of ca. 269.19 μmol L−1 min−1, which was ∼55.00 folds higher than that occurred on the unmodified YVO4 material (4.90 μmol L−1 min−1). The constructed MnCo2O4/YVO4 heterostructure exhibited preeminently superb photocatalytic thiophene oxidation with superior recyclability than nonmodified YVO4. The n-n heterojunction construction between MnCo2O4 and YVO4 played a major role in synergistic promoting the photocatalytic efficacy of the MnCo2O4/YVO4 nanocomposite through enlarging the photoabsorbance capability and promoting photoexcited carriers’ separation. Moreover, the abundant surface reactive sites originating from the mesoporous nature of the constructed heterostructure candidates significantly contributed to enhancing the photocatalytic thiophene oxidation. The 9.0 wt% MnCo2O4/YVO4 candidate exhibited high stability within 600.0 min. Overall, this contribution not only presents a new MnCo2O4/YVO4 heterojunction, fabricated by an easy approach for highly efficient desulfurizing of thiophene but also provides good ideas for establishing other heterostructure materials.