Flower-like MoS2/BiFeO3 doped silver orthophosphate catalyst for visible-light assisted treatment of refractory organic pollutants

Abstract The development of MoS2/BiFeO3 embedded silver orthophosphate ternary composite for the excellent photocatalytic abatement of refractory pollutants was established. The fabrication of a confounded heterojunction photocatalyst composite for the enhanced treatment of various dyes, pesticides and antibiotic drugs with extra stability and observable reproducibility are possible. The acid dye methyl orange, basic dyes such as methylene blue, rhodamine B and an azo dye acid red 18 were successfully degraded with above 90% degradation efficiency within a very short time period. These results highlighted that the degradation efficiency of the developed composite was 8 times higher than the pure Ag3PO4 catalyst. Also, the hazardous herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) was degraded and mineralized within 180 min, the most toxic insecticide acephate was degraded within 60 min and the antibiotic tetracycline was removed in 120 min with accountable mineralization. All the pesticides and antibiotic formed less toxic degraded products and the products were corroborated with high resolution mass spectrum (HRMS). The radical scavenger experiment reveals that the active species for photodegradation study was photogenerated holes. These are produced by the rapid transfer of electrons through Ag3PO4 due to its low recombination tendency. In short, the development of Ag3PO4 based ternary composite for the better visible light assisted catalytic degradation of refractory pollutants such as dyes, pesticides and pharmaceutical drugs were carried out with excellent efficiency.