Fabrication of MoS ₂/BiOBr heterojunctions on carbon fibers as a weaveable photocatalyst for tetracycline hydrochloride degradation and Cr(vi) reduction under visible light

Abstract

CFs/MoS ₂/BiOBr bundles can be woven into a recyclable cloth-like photocatalyst for removing organic and metal-ions pollutants in water.

Abstract

The photocatalytic removal of organic pollutants and heavy metals in water has become a hot topic, and its prerequisite is to obtain efficient and recyclable visible-light-driven (VLD) photocatalysts. To solve this issue, we constructed MoS ₂/BiOBr heterojunctions on carbon fibers (CFs) as a flexible and weaveable VLD photocatalyst. Firstly, MoS ₂ nanosheets (thickness: ∼5 nm, diameter: 200–400 nm) were anchored on CFs. Subsequently, a layer of BiOBr lamellae (thickness: ∼25 nm, diameter: 300–600 nm) was grown. CFs/MoS ₂/BiOBr bundles were weaved into cloth, and the cloth could photocatalytically eliminate 92.4% tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) or 90.7% hexavalent chromium (Cr ⁶⁺) in 120 min, higher than CFs/MoS ₂ cloth (43.2%/43.6%) and CFs/BiOBr cloth (51.8%/33.5%). Photogenerated holes and superoxide radicals were found to be the main active species. In particular, a possible photodegradation pathway of TCH was proposed according to the intermediates. Thus, CFs/MoS ₂/BiOBr can act as a weaveable and recyclable photocatalyst for potential applications in treating wastewater.