Fabrication of TiO2 @MoS2 heterostructures with improved visible light photocatalytic activity

The spread application of Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) is severely limited by the rapid recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs (e - -h + ). For many applications, two-dimensional (2D) molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ), with large specific surface area and sufficient active sites, has been widely researched as a beneficial support for TiO 2 photocatalytic activity enhancement. The synthesized heterostructures , the 2D MoS 2 nanosheets loaded with brown TiO 2 particles (b-TiO 2 @MoS 2 ) were manufactured through an ultrasound aided electrochemical exfoliation of natural bulk molybdenite coupled with sol-gel technique at low temperature (180 ºC). SEM, TEM , HRTEM, XRD , XPS , UV–vis absorption, Raman, PL spectra, and photocurrent analysis were used to investigate the morphology, microstructure, composition , and charge separation property of the samples. It was determined that b-TiO 2 @MoS 2 heterostructures had photocatalytic activity by observing their degradation of butyl xanthate during 120 min of visible light irradiation. Furthermore, the photocatalytic effectiveness of the 1 wt% b-TiO 2 @MoS 2 heterostructures is 94.80%, with a maximum rate constant (k value) of 0.01764 min −1 . In contrast to brown TiO 2 , the findings indicated that the b-TiO 2 @MoS 2 heterostructures enhanced visible light absorption, the expansion of active sites, the separation and transfer of photogenerated charges. A probable degradation mechanism of photodegradation butyl xanthate and charge transfer process of b-TiO 2 @MoS 2 heterostructures under visible light irradiation were also postulated.