Cost effective liquid phase exfoliation of MoS(2) nanosheets and photocatalytic activity for wastewater treatment enforced by visible light

Scalable production of high-quality MoS(2) nanosheets remains challenging for industrial applications and research in basic sciences. N-methyl-2pyrrolidine (NMP) is a commonly used solvent for exfoliation of MoS(2) nanosheets having further disadvantage of slow volatility rate. The present study demonstrates a cost-effective facile chemical route to synthesize few-layer MoS(2) nanosheets using acetone as a solvent and by varying bulk initial concentration of samples to scale up the production in large scale to fulfill the demand for potential applications. In our study, we aim to obtain stable growth of high quality few layer MoS(2) nanosheets by long sonication times. Optical absorption spectra, Raman spectra, size of nanosheets and layer thickness of as-grown MoS(2) nanosheets were found to be matching with those obtained from other synthesis methods. Effective photocatalytic performance of MoS(2) nanosheets without being consumed as a reactant was experimented by decomposing Methylene Blue dye in aqueous solution under irradiation of visible light. This study provides an idea to synthesize low-cost, sustainable and efficient photocatalytic material in large scale for the next generation to control water pollution quite efficiently by protecting the environment from the contamination coming from these dyes.