Highly efficient solar-driven photocatalytic degradation on environmental pollutants over a novel C fibers@MoSe2 nanoplates core-shell composite.

As an important member of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides, MoSe2 has a wide range of photoelectrochemical properties. However, MoSe2 alone can not directly be used as photocatalyst for its poor performance owing to the strong recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. Here, we propose a novel C fibers@MoSe2 nanoplates core-shell composite, which was prepared by a facile, one-step thermal evaporation method. The composite has a remarkable feature of numerous MoSe2 thin nanoplates grown in-situ, densely and even vertically on the surface of the C fibers. Due to the effective separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs promoted by the prompt transfer of photogenerated electrons through C fibers, compared with commercially available pure MoSe2 powder, such composite exhibits greatly improved solar-driven photocatalytic activity and high stability for the degradation of various organic/inorganic environmental pollutants including methylene blue, rhodamine B, p-chlorophenol and K2Cr2O7 aqueous solutions, showing the great potential for environmental remediation by degrading toxic industrial chemicals in waste water using sunlight. Moreover, this one-step thermal evaporation is an easy-handling, eco-friendly and low-cost synthesis method, which is suitable for large-scale production.