Amorphous CoMoS4 Nanostructure for Photocatalytic H2 Generation, Nitrophenol Reduction, and Methylene Blue Adsorption

Abstract

High-performance ternary transition-metal chalcogenides (TMDs) are desired in various application fields. However, developing ternary TMDs with unique performance via an efficient and economical method is still in its infancy. Herein, we developed an amorphous cobalt molybdenum sulfide (CoMoS4) nanostructure via a facile cation exchange method. XPS, SEM, and HRTEM unravel that the as-synthesized amorphous CoMoS4 nanostructures have defective structures and stacking porous configurations, which could provide abundant active sites for catalysis and adsorption behavior. As expected, such material not only can serve as a non-precious-metal cocatalyst for CdS to enhance photocatalytic H2 evolution but also can exhibit high efficiency for nitrophenol catalytic reduction, in which the apparent reaction rate constant (kapp) is 5.08 × 10-2 s-1, ranking as one of the reported best non-noble-metal catalysts. Additionally, the CoMoS4 nanostructures can adsorb methylene blue (MB) very quickly, achieving adsorption equilibrium in just 90 s. More importantly, the nanostructures could be easily separated and recycled by a simple filtration method. This work enriches the research and applications of ternary transition-metal chalcogenides.