Applied Surface Science, Vol.420, 669-680, 2017
Fabrication of 3D quasi-hierarchical Z-scheme RGO-Fe2O3-MoS2 nanoheterostructures for highly enhanced visible-light-driven photocatalytic degradation
3D quasi-hierarchical Z-scheme RGO-Fe2O3-MoS2 nanocomposites were developed as a high performance photocatalyst driven by visible light. The RGO layers help uniformly disperse alpha-Fe2O3 NPs and MoS2 nanosheets, resulting in large specific surface area of the nanocomposites. Moreover, when involved in photocatalytic process for MB degradation, the RGO layers not only serve as current collector to enhance the photo-generated charge carriers' transport but also form abundant heterostructures with Fe2O3 and MoS2 to effectively separate the photo-induced electron-hole pairs. The Fe-O-C bonds are formed between Fe2O3 and RGO, implying the intimate interface contact which can accelerate the separation of photogenerated carriers. Moreover, the loading of MoS2 nanosheets, which contributes to large amount of light absorption, is conducive to create a plenty of heterojunctions with Fe2O3 and effectively separate photo-induced electron-hole pairs. As a result, the typical Z-scheme RGO-Fe2O3-MoS2 nanocomposites containing 62.1 wt% of alpha-Fe2O3 and 15.2 wt% of MoS2 show drastically enhanced photocatalytic activity for visible-light-driven MB and RhB degradation compared to the pristine Fe2O3 NPs, and together with excellent stability. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.