TiO nanorod decorated with MoS nanospheres: An efficient dual-functional photocatalyst for antibiotic degradation and hydrogen production.

The design and preparation of dual-functional photocatalysts for simultaneously realizing photocatalytic wastewater purification and hydrogen energy generation pose significant challenges. This article presents the engineering of a binary heterostructured photocatalyst by combining TiO (nanorods) and MoS nanosphere using a straightforward solvothermal method and the assessment of the phase structures, morphologies, and optical properties of the resulting nanocomposites using diverse analytical techniques. The TiO(Rod)/MoS composite exhibits remarkable efficacy in degrading ciprofloxacin, achieving 93% removal rate within 1 h, which is four times higher than that of bare TiO. Moreover, the optimized TiO(Rod)/MoS presents an outstanding hydrogen production rate of 7415 μmol g, which is ∼24 times higher than that of pristine TiO. Under UV-visible light irradiation, the TiO(Rod)/MoS heterojunction displays an exceptional photocatalytic performance in terms of both photodegradation and hydrogen production, surpassing the performance of TiO particle/MoS. The study findings demonstrate that TiO(Rod)/MoS nanocomposites exhibit considerably improved photocatalytic degradation and hydrogen generation activities. Based on the experimental results, a possible mechanism is proposed for the transfer and separation of charge carriers in Z-scheme heterojunctions.