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Visible light photocatalysis is of great importance in waste water photodegradation and photoelectrochemical clean energy generation. The preparation of visible light photocatalysts with high photocatalytic activity, stability, and recyclability is desirable and challenging. In this paper, we design flexible three-dimensional (3D) MoS2–TiO2 nanorod arrays (NRAs) heterojunction structures. Specifically, the peony-shape MoS2 nanosheets (NS) were loaded on 3D rutile TiO2 NRAs supported by flexible conductive carbon cloth (CC) substrate by ALD technique and two-step hydrothermal process. The visible light photocatalytic activity of as-prepared flexible 3D MoS2–TiO2 NRAs heterojunction structures is about 40 times higher than that of pure rutile TiO2 NRAs. More importantly, after 7 times cycling tests, the prepared photocatalytic system still holds 98.634 ± 0.936% photodegradation efficiency. The addition of coarse surface MoS2 NS not only broadens the light adsorption edge to the visible light range but also provides plentiful active reaction sites. The type-II heterojunction formed at the interface between contacted MoS2 and TiO2 efficiently prolongs the lifetime of photogenerated electron–hole pairs, inhibiting the recombination of photo-induced carrier. The 3D structures reduce the surface light reflection loss, improving the light utilization efficiency. Moreover, the binder-free combination between photocatalyst and substrate enables fast electron immigration path, promoting carrier separation efficiency. Currently prepared flexible 3D MoS2–TiO2 NRAs are capable of an outstanding candidate for large-scale practical visible light or solar light photocatalytic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, P-g-C3N4/TiO2 (the protonated g-C3N4 is noted as P-g-C3N4) heterojunction photocatalytic materials with hollow sphere structure were synthesized mainly by high-temperature calcination and secondary hydrothermal methods. To obtain highly efficient heterojunction catalytic materials with more uniform surface compounding, we protonated and exfoliated ultrasonically the obtained g-C3N4 before compounding further, which changed its morphology while retaining its semiconductor properties and optical band gap unchanged, and finally obtained the ultra-thin nanoflake structures. On this basis, an optimal proportion of the highest catalytic activity between these two substances was explored by degrading RHB. It was found that the highest catalytic activity of the complexes was achieved at 110 min with a weight ratio of 0.1 of P-g-C3N4 to TiO2 after protonating under the same conditions, and complete degradation was reached at 110 min. Afterward, to further investigate its physicochemical properties, we made various characterizations and proposed a suitable catalytic mechanism of Z-scheme regarding its excellent catalytic properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, g-C3N4/TiO2 nanocatalysts were prepared by high-voltage electrospinning and hydrothermal methods. The surface of the pure TiO2 nanomaterial was treated by acidification before it was combined with g-C3N4.Various characterization methods were used to characterize the prepared photocatalyst. RhB (20 mg/L) was degraded as a target-degradable pollutant, the degradation efficiency of the nanocatalyst was measured under UV–Visible light. The results show that the degradation efficiency of the g-C3N4/TiO2 nanocomposite material that has undergone pre-acidification treatment is much higher than that of the untreated catalyst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One dimensional spinel CoFe 2 O 4 nanofibers were synthesized via the electrospinning technique. The nanofibers were calcined at different temperatures. All CoFe 2 O 4 nanofibers show excellent oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance. The nanofibers calcined at 750 °C have a multi-particle nanochain structure. The nanochain exhibits excellent catalytic performance for OER in 1 M KOH (pH = 14) producing a current density of 10 mA cm -2 at an overpotential of 0.34 V, and the small onset potential of 1.32 V versus RHE, better than that of the commercial Ir/C (20%) catalyst. Furthermore, the stability of CoFe 2 O 4 multi-particle nanochains toward the OER decreases by only 0.78% even after a long period of 80 000 s. Our finding suggests that CoFe 2 O 4 nanofibers with a multi-particle nanochain structure could serve as a new group of OER electrocatalysts with excellent performance., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)