Photocatalytic Activity of the Oxidation Stabilized Ti3C2Tx MXene in Decomposing Methylene Blue, Bromocresol Green and Commercial Textile Dye

Two-dimensional MXenes are excellent photocatalysts. However, their low oxidation stability makes controlling photocatalytic processes challenging. For the first time, this work elucidates the influence of the oxidation stabilization of model 2D Ti3C2Tx MXene on its optical and photocatalytic properties. The delaminated MXene is synthesized via two well-established approaches: hydrofluoric acid/tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAOH-MXene) and minimum intensive layer delamination with hydrochloric acid/lithium fluoride (MILD-MXene) and then stabilized by L-ascorbic acid. Both MXenes at a minimal concentration of 32 mg L-1 show almost 100% effectiveness in the 180-min photocatalytic decomposition of 25 mg L-1 model methylene blue and bromocresol green dyes. Industrial viability is achieved by decomposing a commercial textile dye having 100 times higher concentration than that of model dyes. In such conditions, MILD-MXene is the most efficient due to less wide optical band gap than TMAOH-MXene. The MILD-MXene required only few seconds of UV light, simulated white light, or 500 nm (cyan) light irradiation to fully decompose the dye. The photocatalytic mechanism of action is associated with the interplay between surface dye adsorption and the reactive oxygen species generated by MXene under light irradiation. Importantly, both MXenes are successfully reused and retained approximately 70% of their activity.

Automated summary

This study investigates the influence of oxidation stabilization on the optical and photocatalytic properties of 2D MXenes and demonstrates their high effectiveness in decomposing model dyes and a commercial textile dye.