Journal of Materials Science, Vol.54, No.7, 5321-5330, 2019
Enhancement of photocatalytic performance of TaON by combining it with noble-metal-free MoS2 cocatalysts
Utilizing cocatalysts is an effective measure to enhance photocatalytic activities of photocatalysts. Nevertheless, noble-metal cocatalysts such as Pt and Au impose astounding costs on the application of photocatalytic technology. Herein, noble-metal-free MoS2 was used as a cocatalyst to improve the photocatalytic activity of visible-light-responsive TaON for the first time. This work indicates that MoS2/TaON presented higher activity than Pt/TaON while MoS2 costs much less than Pt. The photocatalytic degradation ratio of RhB over Ta1Mo1 (mass ratio of TaON:MoS2=1:1) was about 65% after 2h visible light irradiation, which is about five times higher than that of pure TaON. Furthermore, MoS2/SiO2/TaON ternary photocatalysts were constructed to further improve the photocatalytic performance. When the mass ratio of Ta8Si1 (mass ratio of TaON:SiO2=8:1) to MoS2 was 1:1, the degradation ratio of RhB reached 75% after 2h visible light irradiation. This work provides a facile method to construct high-efficient photocatalysts with the noble-metal-free cocatalyst MoS2, paving the way to realize the application of cheap and environment-friendly photocatalysis.