Boosting the adsorption and photocatalytic activity of carbon fiber/MoS2-based weavable photocatalyst by decorating UiO-66-NH2 nanoparticles

Abstract MoS2-based nanocomposites on carbon fibers (CFs) have been well developed, but their practical applications are still limited owing to the unsatisfactory adsorption and photodegradation performances. To deal with these issues, we report the growth of UiO-66-NH2 nanoparticles as a porous co-photocatalyst to decorate MoS2 nanosheets on CFs. CFs/MoS2/UiO-66-NH2 bundles are woven into a macroscopical cloth (4×4 cm2, 0.15 g). CFs/MoS2/UiO-66-NH2 cloth can efficiently adsorb 34.9% levofloxacin (LVFX) and 35.3% hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) after 60 min, which is an obvious improvement (1.3∼2.9 times) compared with that by CFs/MoS2 cloth. Importantly, the cloth can remove 88.4% LVFX or 98.4% Cr(VI) within 120 min, which is 1.6∼2.7 times compared with that by CFs/MoS2 cloth, resulting from the high adsorption and two-component synergistic photocatalytic activity. Furthermore, CFs/MoS2/UiO-66-NH2 shows a slight decline from 88.4% to 76.9% under visible light irradiation after 4 cycles. Thus, the semiconductor/MOF-based heterojunction on CF provides a general strategy to develop novel weavable photocatalysts for eliminating various pollutants.