Fabrication of Bi2O3/Bismuth Titanates Modified with Metal-Organic Framework-In2S3/CdIn2S4 Materials for Electrocatalytic H2 Production and Its Photoactivity

Krishnakumar Balu; Balakrishna Avula; Mani Durai; Sakthivel Kumaravel; Ernesto Chicardi; Ranier Sepúlveda; Elangovan Erusappan; Imran Hasan; Young-Ho Ahn

doi:10.1021/acs.langmuir.3c02031

Fabrication of Bi₂O₃/Bismuth Titanates Modified with Metal-Organic Framework-In₂S₃/CdIn₂S₄ Materials for Electrocatalytic H₂ Production and Its Photoactivity

Langmuir. 2023 Oct 24;39(42):15055-15066. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.3c02031. Epub 2023 Oct 16.

Authors

Krishnakumar Balu^{1

2}, Balakrishna Avula³, Mani Durai⁴, Sakthivel Kumaravel⁵, Ernesto Chicardi¹, Ranier Sepúlveda¹, Elangovan Erusappan⁶, Imran Hasan⁷, Young-Ho Ahn⁴

Affiliations

¹ Departamento de Ingeniería y Ciencia de los Materiales y del Transporte, E.T.S. de Ingenieros, Universidad de Sevilla, Avda. Camino de los Descubrimientos s/n., 41092 Sevilla, Spain.
² Department of Chemistry, Saveetha School of Engineering, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Saveetha University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 602105, India.
³ Department of Chemistry, Rajeev Gandhi Memorial College of Engineering and Technology (Autonomous), Nandyal, Andhra Pradesh 518501, India.
⁴ Environmental Science and Engineering Laboratory, Department of Civil Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan 38541, Republic of Korea.
⁵ Department of Environmental Engineering, Korea Maritime and Ocean University, Busan 49112, Republic of Korea.
⁶ Department of Applied Science and Technology, Anna University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600025, India.
⁷ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Compositional and structural elucidation of the materials is important to know their properties, chemical stability, and electro-photoactivity. The heterojunction electrocatalyst and photocatalyst activity could open a new window for solving the most urgent environmental and energy problems. Here, for the first time, we have designed and fabricated Bi₂O₃/bismuth titanates modified with MOF-In₂S₃/CdIn₂S₄ materials by a stepwise process. The detailed structural elucidation and formation of mixed composite phases were studied in detail. It has been found that the formed composite was efficiently utilized for the electrocatalytic H₂ production reaction and the photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline. XRD patterns for the metal-organic framework-In₂S₃ showed a main compound of MOF, and it was assigned to a MIL-53 MOF phase, with a monoclinic structure. The addition of CdCl₂ onto the MOF-In₂S₃ phase effectively produced a CdIn₂S₄ flower platform on the MOF rods. The uniform dispersion of the bismuth titanates in MOF-In₂S₃/CdIn₂S₄ materials is detected by mapping of elements obtained by dark-field HAADF-STEM. Finally, the predictions of how to integrate experiments and obtain structural results more effectively and their common development in new heterojunctions for electro-/photocatalytic applications are presented.