Amorphous MoSO/-BNO Nanohybrids: Synthesis and Dye Photodegradation.

Molybdenum sulfide is a very promising catalyst for the photodegradation of organic pollutants in water. Its photocatalytic activity arises from unsaturated sulfur bonds, and it increases with the introduction of structural defects and/or oxygen substitutions. Amorphous molybdenum sulfide (-MoSO) with oxygen substitutions has many active sites, which create favorable conditions for enhanced catalytic activity. Here we present a new approach to the synthesis of -MoSO and demonstrate its high activity in the photodegradation of the dye methylene blue (MB). The MoSO was deposited on hexagonal boron oxynitride (-BNO) nanoflakes by reacting -BNO, MoCl, and HS in dimethylformamide (DMF) at 250 °C. Both X-ray diffraction analysis and high-resolution TEM show the absence of crystalline order in -MoSO. Based on the results of Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, as well as analysis by the density functional theory (DFT) method, a chain structure of -MoSO was proposed, consisting of MoS clusters with partial substitution of sulfur by oxygen. When a third of the sulfur atoms are replaced with oxygen, the band gap of -MoSO is approximately 1.36 eV, and the valence and conduction bands are 0.74 eV and -0.62 eV, respectively (relative to a standard hydrogen electrode), which satisfies the conditions of photoinduced splitting of water. When illuminated with a mercury lamp, -MoSO/-BNO nanohybrids have a specific mass activity in MB photodegradation of approximately 5.51 mmol g h, which is at least four times higher than so far reported values for nonmetal catalysts. The photocatalyst has been shown to be very stable and can be reused.