Partial Oxidation Strategy to Synthesize WS₂/WO₃ Heterostructure with Enhanced Adsorption Performance for Organic...

In this work, a facile oxidation strategy was developed to prepare novel tungsten disulfide/tungsten trioxide (WS₂/WO₃) heterostructures for adsorbing organic dyes efficiently by combining the hydrophilic property of WO₃ and the superior dye affinity of WS₂. The structural and elemental properties of the synthesized hybrid materials were systematically investigated, and the results demonstrated the retained flower-like morphology of the primitive WS₂ and the successful introduction of WO₃. Furthermore, surface properties such as a superior hydrophilicity and negative-charged potential were also demonstrated by a water contact angle characterization combined with a Zeta potential analysis. The performance of the obtained WS₂/WO₃ hybrid materials for removing Rhodamine B (RhB) from wastewater was evaluated. The results showed that the maximum adsorption capacity of the newly synthesized material could reach 237.1 mg/g. Besides, the adsorption isotherms were also simulated by a statistical physics monolayer model, which revealed the non-horizontal orientation of adsorbates and endothermic physical interaction. Finally, the adsorption mechanism and the recyclability revealed that the partial oxidation strategy could contribute to a higher adsorption capacity by modulating the surface properties and could be applied as a highly efficient strategy to design other transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) heterostructures for removing organic dyes from wastewater.