Fabrication of an efficient MXene based ternary nanocomposite of bismuth vanadate-bismuth sulfide as photocatalyst for the degradation of harmful industrial effluents

The current research work is based on the synthesis of BiVO₄ (BVO), Bi₂S₃ (BS), a binary composite of BiVO₄ and Bi₂S₃ (BVO-BS), and MXene-based ternary nanocomposite of BiVO₄ and Bi₂S₃ (BVO-BS/MXene). BVO nanoparticles and BS nanorods were synthesized by co-precipitation and hydrothermal approaches respectively. While the binary (BVO-BS), and ternary (BVO-BS/MXene) nanocomposites were synthesized by an ultra-sonication method. The fabricated semiconducting materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis, Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy, and Scanning electron microscopy. Furthermore, the optical and electrochemical properties of synthesized samples were studied by UV–visible spectroscopy and Mott-Schottky/Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis respectively. The photocatalytic removal efficiency of prepared samples was tested against an organic dye (Congo red) and pharmaceutical drug (Ciprofloxacin). The experimental results showed that (BVO-BS/MXene) ternary nanocomposite removed 92.5% congo red and 36.95% ciprofloxacin from wastewater under the visible light irradiation of about 70 min. While the binary composite; BVO-BS removed only 71.30% congo red and 22.61% ciprofloxacin within 70 min of irradiation. This outstanding degradation ability of BVO-BS/MXene for both Congo red and Ciprofloxacin as compared to binary composite (BVO-BS) was due to its large surface area, low charge transfer resistance (R_ct = 0.96 ohm), and low electron-hole pair recombination. Hence, BVO-BS/MXene is a novel and promising photocatalytic material that could be used as an efficient photocatalyst for environmental pollution remediation applications.