One-pot in-situ hydrothermal synthesis of CdS/Nb2O5/Nb2C heterojunction for enhanced visible-light-driven photodegradation

Abstract In-situ construction of heterojunction structure on substrate material is a feasible way to improve photocatalyst performance. Herein, we employed two-dimensional (2D) Nb2C MXene as the substrate material to construct CdS/Nb2O5/Nb2C ternary heterojunction structure by the one-pot hydrothermal synthesis method. The as-prepared photocatalyst achieved 92% removal efficiency towards carbamazepine (CBZ, model pollutant) under visible light radiation for 4 hours, remarkably higher than that of pure CdS (75%), because the CdS/Nb2O5/Nb2C heterojunction structure significantly promoted electron-hole pair generation, separation and transfer. The 2D accordion-like Nb2C substrate prevented the agglomeration of photocatalysts. CdS nanoparticles and Nb2O5 nanorods grew insert Nb2C substrate, thus to strengthen the binding force between catalyst components and ensure that the Cd2+ leakage was obviously lower than the national standard of China. This work provides a feasible strategy of in-situ construction of visible-light-driven heterojunction photocatalysts on 2D MXene substrate for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of refractory organic pollutants in water.