Photocatalytic Properties of Copper Nitride/Molybdenum Disulfide Composite Films Prepared by Magnetron Sputtering

Abstract

Cu3N/MoS2 composite films were prepared by magnetron sputtering under different preparation parameter, and their photocatalytic properties were investigated. Results showed that the composite films surface was uniform and had no evident cracks. When the sputtering power of MoS2 increased from 2 W to 8 W, the photocatalytic performance of the composite films showed a trend of increasing first and then decreasing. Among these films, the composite films with MoS2 sputtering power of 4 W showed the best photocatalytic degradation performance. The photocatalytic degradation rate of methyl orange at 30 min was 98.3%, because the MoS2 crystal in the films preferentially grew over the Cu3N crystal, thereby affecting the growth of the Cu3N crystal. The crystallinity of the copper nitride also increased. During photocatalytic degradation, the proper amount of MoS2 reduced the band gap of Cu3N, and the photogenerated electron hole pairs were easily separated. Thus, the films produces additional photogenerated electrons and promotes the degradation reaction of the composite films on methyl orange solution.

Surveying the Synthesis, Optical Properties and Photocatalytic Activity of Cu3N Nanomaterials

“…Therefore, Cu 3 N nanostructures are combined with other semiconductors. For instance, Zhu et al demonstrated that the degradation of MO using TiO 2 @Cu 3 N thin films (effective band gap = 3.0 eV) is higher than in pure TiO 2 thin films, as seen in Figure 8b [35]. A degradation rate of 99.2% of MO solution with an initial concentration of 20 g/mL using a 500 W mercury lamp for 30 min was obtained [84].…”

“…For example, TiO 2 -Cu 3 N nanocomposites manifest an improved bandgap compared to Cu 3 N alone. Zhu et al also reported the growth of TiO 2 -Cu 3 N and Cu 3 N-MoS 2 nanocomposite films by magnetron sputtering that demonstrate enhanced photocatalytic properties [35,84]. Both TiO 2 and MoS 2 are n-type semiconductors that, when combined with p-type Cu 3 N, create p-n junctions.…”

“…For catalytic activity, large specific surfaces of active materials are required. Moreover, when the roughness increases, the number of active sites on the surface also augments, which leads to an enhancement of photocatalytic activity [35,84]. Industrially viable thin film growth techniques, such as sputtering, allow thickness control with the possibility of depositing on large surface areas in order to obtain a high specific surface.…”

“…Although Cu 3 N itself has been extensively studied during the last decade, there is still a significant disparity between the theoretical and experimental optical band gaps. Nevertheless, all these studies concede that Cu 3 N has a narrow bandgap with values ranging from 0.2 to 2.0 eV, exhibiting either metallic or semiconductor behavior [30,34,35]. In fact, the physical and chemical properties of the material not only depend on the synthesis conditions but also on the presence of dopants in the Cu 3 N lattice [36,37].…”

Recent advances in photocatalytic remediation of emerging organic pollutants using semiconducting metal oxides: an overview

“…Cu nanoparticles and their nanocomposites have been employed in degrading a wide range of analytes such as methylene blue, rhodamine B, methyl orange, 2-chlorophenol, bisphenol A, etc. (Basu et al 2014;Xu et al 2015;Talebi 2016;Zhu et al 2020).…”