Hydrothermally synthesized ZnO/WS2 composite with impressive photocatalytic, antibacterial, and electrochemical performances

In this study, we prepared a multifunctional ZnO/WS2 composite by a hydrothermal process, in which ZnO rods are wrapped with WS2 sheets, and investigated its photocatalytic, antibacterial, and electrochemical properties. It was observed that the loading of WS2 sheets into ZnO rods significantly enhanced the catalytic activity of the resultant composite in terms of photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) and destruction of Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) bacteria. Additionally, the ZnO/WS2 composite was implied as a substantial electrode material for supercapacitors. In a three-electrode system, the composite electrode exhibited good electrochemical performance with a specific capacitance of 180F/g at the current density of 0.5 A/g in a 2 M KOH electrolyte, which is 81 % enhancement than that of ZnO rods. Further, cyclic stability of similar to 75 % was recorded after 5000 runs. The enhanced optical, photocatalytic, antibacterial, and electrochemical properties are ascribed to the combined effect of ZnO and WS2 in the composite system.