ENHANCED PHOTOCATALYTIC ACTIVITY OF Cs₄PbBr₆/ WS₂ NS HYBRID NANOCOMPOSITE

Photocatalytic processes are among the prime means for mitigating the pollution caused by toxic effluents, i.e., gases emitted to the air we breathe, liquids that pollute our drinking water, and fields used to grow our crops. In this context, photocatalysis presents a promising path and is thus undergoing rapid evolution. Especially halide perovskites became a promising candidate due to the negative conduction band minimum and the low work function, which is necessary for dye degradation and hydrogen generation. Interestingly, halide perovskite`s performance significantly improves by introducing MoS₂ or WS₂ as a co-catalyst, which enables suppressed charge recombination and proper band alignment. Here we investigate the photocatalytic performance of Cs₄PbBr₆/WS₂ hybrid nanocomposite’s towards organic dye degradation under visible light illumination. We find that the hybrids of composites Cs₄PbBr₆/WS₂ nanotubes (NT) and Cs₄PbBr₆/WS₂ nanoparticles (NP) significantly increase the degradation rate of methylene blue (MB) compared to pristine Cs₄PbBr₆ and WS₂ nanostructures(NS). Specifically, there is 95% of MB degradation after 90 minutes when we use Cs₄PbBr₆/WS₂ NT and Cs₄PbBr₆/WS₂ NP hybrid composites. Compared with other halide perovskites CsPbBr₃ or CsPb₂Br₅[1] the hybrid WS₂ NT/ Cs₄PbBr₆ and WS₂ NP/Cs₄PbBr₆ exhibits 1.6 times enhanced photocatalytic behavior. The results of optical measurement together with the boosted photocatalytic performance indicated that the hybrid Cs₄PbBr₆/WS₂ composites reduce carrier recombination. These hybrid composites open capable perspectives for the implementation of visible light catalysis.