Fabrication of CuO/MoS2@gCN nanocomposite for effective degradation of methyl orange and phenol photocatalytically

Abstract

Water from the industries contains various organic effluents which are needed to be removed. Photocatalysis is an efficient method to degrade organic effluents that contaminate water and harmfully affect the environment. This study presents the structural, optical characteristics, and photocatalytic activity of the CuO/MoS2 and their composite with gCN. The hydrothermal approach was employed to fabricate MoS2 nanoflowers, and the co-precipitation method to fabricate CuO. The composite with gCN was prepared successfully using an ultrasonication approach. The physio-chemical properties of fabricated photocatalysts were investigated by various characterization techniques. SEM analysis revealed the nanoflower morphology of the prepared MoS2 sample. The photocatalytic activity was examined by the photodegradation of methyl orange dye and phenol. CuO/MoS2@gCN photocatalyst showed 85.14 % degradation of methyl orange and 63.50 % degradation of phenol. Also, the rate constant of CuO/MoS2@gCN was found to be 0.051 min−1 for MO dye and 0.02 min−1 for phenol, which is higher than other synthesized samples. The scavenging experiment was carried out to identify the most photoactive species involved in the organic pollutants photocatalytic degradation. Electrons served as the primary photoactive species in photocatalysis. Consequently, it is concluded from the results that CuO/MoS2@gCN could be employed as an efficient photocatalyst for wastewater treatment.

Keywords

• MoS2
• gCN
• Charge transfer resistance
• Band gap
• Scavengers