A Novel Route to Manufacture 2D Layer MoS2 and g-C3N4 by Atmospheric Plasma with Enhanced Visible-Light-Driven Photocatalysis

Abstract

An atmospheric plasma treatment strategy was developed to prepare two-dimensional (2D) molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) and graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nanosheets from (NH4)2MoS4 and bulk g-C3N4, respectively. The moderate temperature of plasma is beneficial for exfoliating bulk materials to thinner nanosheets. The thicknesses of as-prepared MoS2 and g-C3N4 nanosheets are 2–3 nm and 1.2 nm, respectively. They exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity on account of the nanosheet structure, larger surface area, more flexible photophysical properties, and longer charge carrier average lifetime. Under visible light irradiation, the hydrogen production rates of MoS2 and g-C3N4 by plasma were 3.3 and 1.5 times higher than the corresponding bulk materials, respectively. And g-C3N4 by plasma exhibited 2.5 and 1.3 times degradation rates on bulk that for methyl orange and rhodamine B, respectively. The mechanism of plasma preparation was proposed on account of microstructure characterization and online mass spectroscopy, which indicated that gas etching, gas expansion, and the repulsive force of electron play the key roles in the plasma exfoliation. Plasma as an environmentally benign approach provides a general platform for fabricating ultrathin nanosheet materials with prospective applications as photocatalysts for pollutant degradation and water splitting.

A Novel Au@Cu2O-Ag Ternary Nanocomposite with Highly Efficient Catalytic Performance: Towards Rapid Reduction of Methyl Orange Under Dark Condition

“…Nowadays, a series of post/pre-treatment methods have been proposed to remove the azo dyes from the wastewater [1,[9][10][11]. Porous/activated carbons have been applied as commercial adsorbents for the wastewater treatment thanks to their high capacity for adsorbing pollutants.…”

Noble Metal-Free TiO2-Coated Carbon Nitride Layers for Enhanced Visible Light-Driven Photocatalysis

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Sonochemical Synthesis of Copper-doped BiVO4/g-C3N4 Nanocomposite Materials for Photocatalytic Degradation of Bisphenol A under Simulated Sunlight Irradiation

“…Thus, in this article, we chose graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) to modify BiVO 4 to enhance photocatalytic efficiency due to graphene-like structure, good thermal and chemical stability, good visible light absorption, and photocatalytic properties of g-C 3 N 4 [6]. In addition, g-C 3 N 4 nanosheets could enhance an easier electron transfer during the reaction [9]. Smykalova et al (2019) indicated that g-C 3 N 4 nanosheets possessed a large specific surface area, which resulted in the higher degradation ratio of medicines in water [10].…”