Abstract:
MoS
2/TiO
2 nanocomposites was prepared by mixing MoS
2 with hydrothermally synthesized TiO
2; the effects of MoS
2 loading on the photocatalytic performance of MoS
2/TiO
2 in phenol degradation were investigated. The XRD, SEM, EDS, FT-IR and UV-vis DRS characterization results show that for the MoS
2/TiO
2 nanocomposites, lamellar MoS
2 is uniformly dispersed around the TiO
2 nanoparticles. The increase of MoS
2 loading is beneficial to the photocatalytic degradation of phenol; with a MoS
2 loading of 27%, the MoS
2/TiO
2 nanoparticles exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity, over which phenol can be completely degraded in 80 min. The intermediates during reaction are further tracked to investigate the reaction kinetics of photodegradation of phenol over MoS
2/TiO
2 nanocomposties. The results reveal that an increase in MoS
2 loading is able to promote the formation of various intermediates such as benzoquinone, hydroquinone and catechol, which can further enhance the overall photodegradation efficiency.