Molybdenum disulfide nanosheets vertically grown on self-supported titanium dioxide/nitrogen-doped carbon nanofiber film for effective hydrogen peroxide decomposition and “memory catalysis”

Abstract A self-supporting catalyst consisting of 1D/2D vertical molybdenum disulfide@titanium dioxide/nitrogen-doped carbon nanofiber (MoS2@TiO2/NCNFs) was prepared and tested. It showed efficient hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) decomposition to generate hydroxyl radical (•OH) and degradation of various pollutants under solar irradiation. The contribution of the increase in MoS2 edges for decomposing H2O2 was 0.0698 min-1. That is 9.83 times the rate of the original MoS2 edges resulting from the vertical structure. Specially, the catalyst degraded various aromatic pollutants even in the dark by releasing electrons stored in its graphite component to realize “memory catalysis”. Also, it exhibited high degradation efficiency under outdoor solar irradiation. The catalyst was easily separated from the treated water, avoiding complex separation processes. All these features suggest this catalyst has great potential in practical water and sewage treatment applications.