Enhancement of visible light driven dye degradation and photocatalytic H 2 evolution over MoS 2 through combination with perylene diimide aggregates

• Published in: New journal of chemistry 2021-08, Vol.45 (32), p.14432-14443
• Main Authors: Ma, Yongshan, Cui, Jingcheng, Yin, Mengmeng, Li, Xuemei, Jiang, Tianyi, Zhang, Fengxia, Zhu, Yanyan, Liu, Yuanyuan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1144-0546; 1369-9261
• DOI: 10.1039/D1NJ01999F

Exploiting an efficient and cheap catalyst for the elimination of organic contaminants from wastewater and photocatalytic hydrogen evolution has drawn great attention recently. Herein, MoS 2 nanoflowers (MoS 2 NFs) and 1-phenol-perylene diimide microbelts (PPDI MBs) were prepared by a hydrothermal and solvent exchange process, respectively. They were closely mixed by a hydrothermal method to obtain novel organic–inorganic MoS 2 /PPDI p–n heterojunction photocatalysts (MoS 2 /PPDI HSs). Remarkably, the optimized MoS 2 /PPDI HS catalyst exhibited high-efficient photocatalytic activity for Methyl Orange (MO), Methylene Blue (MB), and Eriochrome Black T (EBT). Meanwhile, the new composite showed better hydrogen evolution reaction activity. The significant enhancement of photocatalytic activity is due to the formation of a Z-scheme p–n heterojunction and large specific surface area, which can effectively separate and transfer interfacial charge. The radical scavenging techniques confirmed that superoxide radical anions (˙O 2 − ) and holes (h + ) played important roles in the photocatalytic process. This study suggests that the novel composite material has a broad application in solving environmental and energy problems due to the simple and cheap synthesis process, low raw material cost and environmentally friendly methods.