Novel WS2/ZnS composite with high performance of the adsorption and photocatalysis

Both adsorption and photodegradation are effective methods to treat organic pollutants in water. Adsorbent materials, such as activated carbon, are generally disposable and difficult to reuse. By contrast, photocatalysts can be reused to treat organic pollutants in water. However, the slow deg-radation rate of photocatalysts cannot meet the emergency treatment of contaminants. Therefore, we proposed a novel WS2/ZnS composite with ZnS as the catalyst, and WS2 as the adsorption, both of which were sulfide. The WS2/ZnS composite was synthesized by a two-part hydrother-mal method. The crystal structure, surface morphology and pore size of WS2/ZnS were analyzed by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller. The experi-mental results show that the WS2/ZnS composite material was successfully synthesized and had a rough surface and a high specific surface area (40.6 m2/g). Then, the photocatalytic performance of WS2/ZnS was analyzed. The results showed that the WS2/ZnS composite material could effec-tively adsorb and catalyze 96% organic materials within 20 min. Repeated experiments have proven that WS2/ZnS has excellent recyclable properties, and the catalytic performance of the WS2/ZnS catalyst was still similar to that of the first use after 5 uses. In addition, WS2/ZnS also has excel-lent treatment ability for complex organic pollutants in water environment that simulates actual dye wastewater. The results show that the WS2/ZnS composite was a fast, efficient and reusable adsorption-catalyst that can treat emergency pollution immediately.