Insights into two-dimensional MoS2 sheets for enhanced CO2 photoreduction to C1 and C2 hydrocarbon products

Herein, hydrothermal synthesis of 2D structure of MoS2 sheets followed by a simple annealing step was reported. The XRD pattern revealed the co-existence of 2H and 3R MoS2 phases. FE-SEM clearly showed the observation of stacked layers of MoS2. Moreover, Raman analysis revealed that more than 10 layers stacking of MoS2 sheets was synthesized. Furthermore, XPS analysis confirmed the presence of Mo4+ species that belongs to MoS2. The CO2 photoreduction over MoS2 was operated under UV light and the results displayed a significant performance towards methanol and acetaldehyde production using different aqueous solutions. The maximum production yield of methanol was estimated to be 109.5 mu mol/g in 0.5 M NaHCO3; however, acetaldehyde yield was 19.2 mu mol/g in 0.5 M NaCl. The high-speed transition of excited electrons along MoS2 sheets would reflect a high separation between charge carriers, which addressed for the impressive photocatalytic performance of MoS2 to reduce CO2.