Fabrication of Visible Light Active MoS2-W-Cu Ternary Heterojunction for Enhanced Photocatalytic Degradation

R. Leelavathia, K. Vivekanandana, V. Hariharanb aDepartment of Physics, Government Arts College, Coimbatore - 641018, Tamil Nadu, India bDepartment of Physics, Mahendra Arts and Science College, Namakkal - 637 501, Tamil Nadu, India

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The increase in environmental pollution has led to a novel ternary photocatalytic system for remediation. These photocatalytic systems exhibit superior visible light active band gap of Mo0.99W0.005Cu0.005S2. A highly effective visible light active ternary heterojunction was fabricated using the hydrothermal method. Herein, it reports the hydrothermal synthesis of MoS2-W-Cu as a photocatalyst, efficiently exhibiting greater photocatalytic activity for wastewater treatment under visible light. The photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue in aqueous suspension has been employed to evaluate the visible light photocatalytic activity of the prepared samples. The blue shift in the absorption onset confirms the size quantization of pure and doped MoS2 nanoparticles, which act as effective and stable catalysts, making it possible to utilize visible light in photocatalysis. The as-prepared samples were characterized using field emission scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, X-ray diffraction, UV-visible, and UV-visible differential reflectance spectroscopy techniques. The characteristic Bragg peaks of Mo0.99W0.005Cu0.005S2 are reduced, indicating the possible formation of layered MoS2. The field emission scanning electron microscope morphologies of MoS2, Mo0.99W0.01S2, and Mo0.99W0.005Cu0.005S2 are disordered, and nanorods were induced in the hydrothermal method. The calculated band gap of the novel photocatalyst was found from the differential reflectance spectroscopy plot, which helped in understanding the photo-induced electron-hole pair's recombination. Mo0.99W0.005Cu0.005S2 doping of ternary sample, which increases the photocatalytic degradation, was studied in detail and the experimental result is reported.

DOI:10.12693/APhysPolA.145.361 topics: MoS2, ternary photocatalytic, hydrothermal, heterojunction