Bulletin of Chemical Reaction Engineering & Catalysis
2019: BCREC Volume 14 Issue 1 Year 2019 (April 2019)

PEGylated MoS2 Nanosheets: A Dual Functional Photocatalyst for Photodegradation of Organic Dyes and Photoreduction of Chromium from Aqueous Solution

Madima Ntakadzeni (Department of Applied Chemistry, University of Johannesburg, Doornfontein Campus 2028, Johannesburg)
William Wilson Anku (Department of Applied Chemistry, University of Johannesburg, Doornfontein Campus 2028, Johannesburg)
Neeraj Kumar (Department of Applied Chemistry, University of Johannesburg, Doornfontein Campus 2028, Johannesburg)
Penny Poomani Govender (Department of Applied Chemistry, University of Johannesburg, Doornfontein Campus 2028, Johannesburg)
Leelakrishna Reddy (Department of Physics, University of Johannesburg, Doornfontein Campus 2028, Johannesburg)



Article Info

Publish Date
15 Apr 2019

Abstract

This article reports the synthesis of PEGylated microspheres of MoS2 nanosheets through the hydrothermal method and its application in rhodamine B and methylene blue dyes photodegradation, and photoreduction of chromium(VI) to chromium(III) in water under illumination with visible light. The catalyst was characterized using X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR), Thermo-gravimetric Analysis (TGA), and UV-Vis spectroscopies. XRD result reveals the MoS2 nanosheets to be present in the hexagonal phase of MoS2. SEM, TEM, and HRTEM images show that the synthesised sample has spherical shapes made up of several thin sheets of MoS2. The catalyst showed visible light responsivity with a calculated band gap of 1.92 eV. The MoS2 nanosheets exhibited high degradation efficiency against both dyes. The RhB and MB dyes experienced degradation efficiencies of 97.30 % (RhB) and 98.05 % (MB) in 75 min 90 min, respectively.  The MoS2 photocatalyst is also observed to be effective in photocatalytic reduction of Cr(VI) and displayed 91.05% reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III) in 75 min. The results reveal that the synthesised MoS2 nanosheet is a good photocatalytic material for degradation of dyes and reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III) in water. 

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Journal Info

Abbrev

bcrec

Publisher

Subject

Chemical Engineering, Chemistry & Bioengineering Chemistry

Description

Bulletin of Chemical Reaction Engineering & Catalysis (e-ISSN: 1978-2993), an international journal, provides a forum for publishing the novel technologies related to the catalyst, catalysis, chemical reactor, kinetics studies, and chemical reaction ...