Development of MoS2 anchored 2D exfoliated titanate nanosheets thin film for Efficient photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants

A novel synthesis route is developed by combining dip-coating and chemical solution deposition methods for the synthesis of photo-functional MoS2@TNS hybrid photocatalyst thin films. The MoS2@TNS hybrid films display high surface area morphology of randomly anchored MoS2 nanospheres on parallelly ordered titanate nanosheet (TNS) thin film. An X-ray diffraction study evidences the 2H-MoS2 growth on parallelly stacked lepidocrocitetype TNS thin films. The MoS2@TNS hybrid films exhibit a significant visible light absorption and high surface area structure, representing their visible-light harvesting capability and effective electronic coupling between TNS and MoS2 nanospheres. The MoS2@TNS hybrid films display enhanced visible-light-induced photocatalytic activity by degrading organic pollutants such as rhodamine B, methylene blue and tetracycline hydrochloride with degradation efficiencies of 81, 79 and 77 % in 90 min, respectively. This work demonstrates the effective synthesis route of TNS-based hybrid thin films and their application in photocatalytic organic pollutant degradation.