Photothermocatalytic sterilization activity enhancement and mechanism evaluation of WO3/TpPa-1/N-Nb2CTx constructed with a 2D Z-type heterojunction WO3/TpPa-1 and 2D co-catalyst Nb2CTx

Foodborne pathogens are the main factors causing food poisoning, and it is of great significance to develop novel nanocomposites to obtain efficient and stable photothermal-assisted photocatalysts for killing foodborne pathogens. In this paper, Z-type heterojunction WO 3 /TpPa-1 with a core-shell structure was constructed by in-situ synthesis, and the Nb 2 CT x was used as a co-catalyst to obtain an efficient ternary composite WO 3 /TpPa-1/N-Nb 2 CT x . Compared to the monomers, the ternary composites improved light trapping, interfacial separation effectiveness, and the mobility of photogenerated carriers. The WO 3 /TpPa-1/15% N-Nb 2 CT x has the best sterilization efficiency of 99.69% under visible-infrared light irradiation for 30 min. The construction of WO 3 /TpPa-1/N-Nb 2 CT x promoted the separation of electron and hole pairs, which improved the electron transport efficiency and the generation of reactive oxygen species. In addition, the excellent photothermal effect of Nb 2 CT x improves the sterilization performance of WO 3 /TpPa-1/N-Nb 2 CT x . The WO 3 /TpPa-1/N-Nb 2 CT x has a broad application prospect in photothermal-assisted photocatalytic sterilization.