Photocatalytic and bactericidal properties of MXene-derived graphitic carbon-supported TiO2 nanoparticles

The present study addresses the establishment of a highly reactive catalyst derived from Ti3C2Tx (MXene), which is a graphitic carbon-supported TiO2 hybrid nanostructure for photocatalytic and bacteriostatic applications. The graphitic carbon-supported TiO2 nanoparticles, which were placed onto a Ti3C2Tx backbone as ternary hybrids under the controlled oxidation of isopropylamine delaminated Ti3C2Tx, were demonstrated to be semiconducting nanostructures. Beneficially, the oxygen-related vacancies in TiO2 along with graphitic carbon support in the metallic Ti3C2Tx heterostructures exhibited distinct methylene blue dye degradation under UV irradiation at a rate constant of (k) of 0.035 ± 0.003 min−1. The demonstrated superior catalytic performance of the assembled hybrid structure was attributed to the formation of multiple interfacial junctions formed by graphitic carbon, TiO2 nanoparticles, and Ti3C2Tx, which created distinct intermediate energy levels for electron-hole pair separation and improved the catalytic performance. The synthesized hybrid nanostructures also exhibited excellent antibacterial activity; approximately 97.4% of E. coli was killed by the nanostructures under light exposure due to the excessive radicals that caused oxidative stress on bacterial cells. The developed hybrid nanostructures from the controlled oxidation of delaminated Ti3C2Tx are expected to be superior materials for photocatalytic and bacteriostatic applications.