Application and mechanism study of TiO2/MXene nanocomposites in photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange

In this work, TiO 2 /MXene nanocomposites have been explored with hydrothermal synthesis during the dye photocatalytic degradation process. They worked as photocatalyst with high efficiency. The degradation of organic dye methyl orange with MXene under ultraviolet (UV) light and visible light was studied in detail. The methyl orange can be degraded efficiently especially at acid condition. When the nanocomposites/dye ratio was fixed at 5, most of the dye (close to 99.9%) was degraded under UV and visible light irradiation in 3 h. When MXene was recycled to treat methyl orange, the degradation rate was kept at 96% after 2 cycles under UV light. It was found that the composite material showed improved photocatalytic performance under long time ultraviolet treatment. Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy characterizations of Ti 3 AlC 2 and MXene were carried to investigate the possible reasons for high degradation efficiency. MXene worked as a cocatalyst which enhanced the separation of electron hole pairs and catalytic performance.