Crystalline-Amorphous Hybrid of MoS2 for Enhanced Piezo-catalytic Activation of Peroxomonosulfate Toward Organic Pollutants Degradation

Abstract

Despite the promising potential of piezo-catalysis in environmental remediation applications, the performance of various piezoelectric materials still suffer from low carrier concentrations, limited carrier mobility, and rapid recombination of electron-hole pairs, and the reported modification strategies are quite intricate and challenging to implement. Herein, MoS₂ with varying degrees of crystallinity is synthesized through drying and thermal treatment processes, and the effect of crystal engineering on the performance of the piezo-activated peroxomonosulfate (PAP) system is investigated. The MoS₂ annealed at 700 °C (M-700) with a crystallization of 60.4% exhibited superior performance in the PAP system, which can degrade 99.6% of bisphenol A within 30 min with a mineralization rate of 57.0%. The positive correlation among the crystallinity of piezoelectric catalysts, the parameters of piezoelectric performance (d₃₃) and piezo-catalytic performance within a certain range is proposed. From the density functional perturbation theory (DFPT), the crystalline-amorphous hybrid of M-700 provided an appropriate charge transfer rate, electron concentration, and mechanical strength, which is more conducive to stimulate the active species chain reaction of PMS. This study provides a novel method for improving the piezo-catalytic activities and holds great promise for water pollution treatment.