Novel molybdenum disulfide heterostructure nanohybrids with enhanced visible-light-induced photocatalytic activity towards organic dyes

Abstract

The present investigation reports on research of pure molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) and MoS2 doped CoO@meso-CN nanohybrids with various concentration. The photocatalytic action of MoS2 doped CoO@meso-CN nanohybrids was established by photodegrading methylene red (MR), methylene orange (MO) and congo red (CR) under visible light irradiation. The efficient visible light driven photocatalytic action was owing to a larger specific surface area of MoS2, which enhanced the close interfacial contact between pollutants and photocatalysts. Thus, when employed as photocatalyst for organic pollutants photodegradation, the developed nanohybrid exhibits a degradation rate of 0.072 min−1, which is high increasing compared with that of pure CoO/meso-CN and MoS2 (0.014 min−1 and 0.032 min−1). In addition, the nanohybrids indicates excellent stability and remarkable organic dyes removal capability, which could provide as a potential photocatalyst for water remediation under visible light. The resultant MoS2 doped CoO@meso-CN nanohybrids exhibit excellent photocatalytic capacity for MR, MO and CR (average removal rate was 94% at pH values of 3) within 60 min. The following demonstrated that synthesized MoS2 doped 1 wt% CoO@meso-CN nanohybrids retained a great photocatalytic as compared to pure MoS2 and CoO/meso-CN photocatalysts for degradation of organic dyes. The cases were described using XRD, FESEM, FTIR, HRTEM, XPS, TGA, UV–vis, Raman and EPR spectroscopy analyses. Our results serve a pathway for the fabrication of a MoS2-based heterostructure nanohybrids which can be applied for environmental management and reusability regions.