One-step synthesis of NiTe 2 nanorods coated with few-layers MoS 2 for enhancing photocatalytic activity

Abstract A facile one-step hydrothermal process was developed for fabrication of three-dimensional hierarchical NiTe 2 @MoS 2 heterostructures. A few layers of MoS 2 uniformly grew on the NiTe 2 nanorods, possessing a higher surface area. The strategy was extended to CoTe 2 @MoS 2 heterostructures with a few layers of MoS 2 . The photocatalytic activities of the heterostructures were evaluated by the photodegradation of methylene blue. The composites show strong adsorption ability and much better photocatalytic efficiency in comparison with pure MoS 2 microflowers and NiTe 2 nanorods. Especially, the NiTe 2 @MoS 2 heterostructure with 40 wt% of MoS 2 presents the highest performance in photocatalytic degradation of dye molecules, which is attributed to the formation of hierarchical network between NiTe 2 nanorods and MoS 2 nanosheets. And the possible mechanism of the enhanced photocatalytic activities was discussed.