MoS
2
is a 2D material that has been widely used in supercapacitor
applications because of its layered structure that provides a large
surface area and allows for high electric double-layer charge storage.
To enhance the cycling stability and capacitance of MoS
2
, it is usually mixed with carbon materials. However, the dependence
of the charge storage mechanism
on the structure of the carbon material is still unclear in literature.
Herein, the effect of the structure of the carbon material on the
charge storage mechanism in 2H flower-shaped MoS
2
is investigated
in detail. Specifically, 2H MoS
2
was mixed with either
8 nm-diameter carbon nanotubes (CNTs) or graphene nanoflakes (GNFs)
in different weight ratios. Also, a composite of MoS
2
,
CNTs, and GNFs (1:1:1) was also studied. The charge storage mechanism
was found to depend on the structure and content of the carbon material.
Insights into the possible storage mechanism(s) were discussed. The
MoS
2
/CNT/GNF composite showed a predominant pseudocapacitive
charge storage mechanism where the diffusion current was ∼89%,
with 88.31% of the resulted capacitance being due to faradic processes.
The high adsorption capacity of dyes onto the 1T-rich MoS2 samples is due to the strong binding between the hydroxide/carboxyl groups and the 1T active sites. The capacity can be tuned by controlling the ratio between 1T and 2H phases of MoS2 nanosheets.
In this work, heterostructures of coupled TiO2@MoS2 with different phases of MoS2 were synthesized via hydrothermal technique. The prepared materials were thoroughly characterized using various techniques, including XRD, SEM, transmission electron microscopy, Brunauer–Emmet–Teller, XPS, Zeta potential and UV–vis spectroscopy. The optimized nanocomposites were tested for the photocatalytic degradation of methyl Orange (MO) under visible light as well as the adsorption of Rhodamine b (RhB) and methelene blue (MB) dyes. The TiO2@1T/2H-MoS2 heterostructures exhibited a narrow bandgap compared to the other studied nanomaterials. A remarkable photodegradation efficiency of TiO2@1T/2H-MoS2 was observed, which completely degraded 20 ppm of MO after 60 min with high stability over four successive cycles. This can be assigned to the formation of unique heterostructures with aligned energy bands between MoS2 nanosheets and TiO2 nanobelts. The formation of these novel interfaces promoted the electron transfer and increased the separation efficiency of carriers, resulting in high photocatalytic degradation. Furthermore, the adsorption efficiency of TiO2@1T/2H-MoS2 was unique, 20 ppm solutions of RhB and MB were removed after 1 and 2 min, respectively. The superior adsorption performance of the TiO2@1T/2H-MoS2 can be attributed to its high surface area (279.9 m2 g−1) and the rich concentration of active sites. The kinetics and the isothermal analysis revealed that the TiO2@1T/2H MoS2 heterstructures have maximum adsorption capacity of 1200 and 970 mg g−1 for RhB and MB, respectively. This study provides a powerful way for designing an effective photocatalyst and adsorbent TiO2-based nanocomposites for water remediation.
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