Photocatalytic and Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER) of Novel Supercritical Fluid Synthesized Nanobiocomposite MoS2/Silk G

Abstract

The photocatalytic activity and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) of MoS2 and silk graphene (silk G) composite synthesized using supercritical fluids and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) methods were investigated for their potential application in photocatalysis. This material was subjected to characterize by XRD, TEM, SEM and FTIR techniques to demonstrate that MoS2/silk G composite still existed in the supercritical fluids methods obtained MoS2 & MoS2/silk G. The optical features of MoS2 was improved by introduction of silk G, which inturn caused shift in band gap from 1.65 to 1.85 eV. Within visible region, creation of high electron-hole pairs is possible by adequate band gap modifications. The fast movement of photo-induced charge carrier can be enhanced by silk G as they decrease the recombination activity. Additionally, the MoS2/silk G shows high oxygen evolution reaction with low Tafel slope of 157.2 mV dec-1 and low overpotential of 603 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm-2. The present study signifies that with addition of silk G in the MoS2 host improved the photocatalytic activity by 13% and electrocatalytic activity by nearly 5% compared to bare MoS2 nanoparticles.