Fabrication of Ternary MoS2/CdS/Bi2S3-Based Nano Composites for Photocatalytic Dye Degradation

Asif Nazir; Muhammad Suleman Tahir; Ghulam Mustafa Kamal; Xu Zhang; Muhammad Bilal Tahir; Bin Jiang; Muhammad Safdar

doi:10.3390/molecules28073167

Fabrication of Ternary MoS₂/CdS/Bi₂S₃-Based Nano Composites for Photocatalytic Dye Degradation

Molecules. 2023 Apr 2;28(7):3167. doi: 10.3390/molecules28073167.

Authors

Asif Nazir¹, Muhammad Suleman Tahir^{2

3}, Ghulam Mustafa Kamal¹, Xu Zhang^{4

5

6}, Muhammad Bilal Tahir⁷, Bin Jiang^{4

5

6}, Muhammad Safdar¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Chemistry, Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences, Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology, Rahim Yar Khan 64200, Pakistan.
² Institute of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology, Rahim Yar Khan 64200, Pakistan.
³ Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Gujrat, Gujrat 50700, Pakistan.
⁴ Optics Valley Laboratory, Wuhan 430074, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic Molecular Physics, Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance in Biological Systems, National Center for Magnetic Resonance in Wuhan, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
⁶ Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430071, China.
⁷ Institute of Physics, Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology, Rahim Yar Khan 64200, Pakistan.

Abstract

The synthesis and design of low-cost visible-light-active catalysts for the photodegradation of organic dyes have been regarded as an efficient way to use solar energy in addressing environmental issues. We report the fabrication of MoS₂/CdS nanoparticles functionalized with Bi₂S₃ nanoflakes. The ternary composites of "MoS₂/CdS/Bi₂S₃" were synthesized in situ by a hydrothermal method at different temperatures. The changes in structural, optical, and morphological properties of the synthesized CdS/MoS₂/Bi₂S₃ were explored. The effects of Bi₂S₃ on CdS/MoS₂ were thoroughly studied by performing an X-ray diffractometer (XRD), a scanning electron microscope (SEM), an ultra-violet-visible spectrometer (Uv-vis), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic (FT-IR) studies of the nanoparticles. XRD confirms the cubical crystal structure of the nanoparticles. SEM studies possess the modulation in the surface morphology with the tenability in volume ratios of "MoS₂/CdS/Bi₂S₃" composites. It was observed that the bandgaps calculated using absorption measurements could be manipulated from 2.40 eV to 0.97 eV with varying Bi₂S₃ in the MoS₂/CdS nanostructures. FT-IR confirmed the synthesis of "MoS₂/CdS/Bi₂S₃" nanoparticles. On allowing the visible light to fall for 120 min, it was observed that "MoS₂/CdS/Bi₂S₃" degrades the methylene blue up to 90%. The calculated results of "MoS₂/CdS/Bi₂S₃" suggest that the synthesized material could be a strong candidate for photodegradation applications. This research work explains the synthesis of MoS₂/CdS/Bi₂S₃-based nanocomposites for the degradation of dye using a photocatalytic process. The final results show that this catalyst effectively degrades the dye.

Keywords: CdS/MoS2/Bi2S3; organic dye; photocatalysis; photodegradation.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China at the Chinese Academy of Science, and the APC was funded by Grant numbers 21974149 and 22174152.