Solar-driven Efficient Heterogeneous Subminute Water Disinfection Nanosystem Assembled with Fingerprint MoS2

Here, we successfully address the aforementioned issues of heterogeneous disinfection by developing discrete nanoflakes of (Al2O3@v-MoS2)/Cu/Fe3O4 in which vertically aligned 2-D nanofingerprint MoS2 is hybridized with Cu metal and magnetic Fe3O4 particles. Three exciting features are integrated into such a novel structure: bifacial vertically aligned MoS2 grown on the top and bottom surfaces of light-transparent Al2O3 nanoflakes that can absorb not only UV light but also almost the full spectrum of visible light, and both sides can operate simultaneously; a Cu-MoS2 junction that enhances charge separation for the efficient generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS); and magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles that have magnetic separation capability and conveniently regenerate after disinfection. The (Al2O3@v-MoS2)/Cu/Fe3O4 nanostructures reported herein exhibit outstanding water disinfection with thorough inactivation of over 5.7 log10 CFU ml-1 E. coli within 1 minute in real sunlight (the system thermal effect has little impact on disinfection performances) and with facile separation and reuse, demonstrating broad application prospects.