Facile hydrothermal synthesis of MXene@antimony nanoneedle composites for toxic pollutants removal

A new 2D transition metal carbides family noted that MXene with antimony (Sb) nano-needles composites have demonstrated potential applications for photocatalytic dye degradations applications. Single-step synthesis of novel structures two/one-dimensional MXene@antimony nanoneedle (MX@Sb-H) nanocomposite-based photocatalysts is produced employing hydrothermal technique. The preparations and characterizations were compared with hand mixture preparations of pure TiO₂@Sb and MXene (MX@Sb-M). The crystallographic structure was identified employing X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies and main sharp XRD peaks were observed with diffraction angle with orientations planes for all three samples TiO₂@Sb, MX@Sb-M and MX@Sb-H. The micro-Raman spectroscopy explored key vibration modes centered at 151.72 and 637.52 cm^-1 corresponding to Ti and Sb hybrid composites respectively. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectrum of functional group peaks at 609.16 and 868.80 cm^-1 revealed Ti-OH/Sb-O-C stretching. The morphological investigations of horizontal growth for "Sb" nanoneedle on MXene nanosheets were explored by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The degradation efficiency was calculated. The efficiency calculated were 27%, 38%, 68% and 82% for MB solution, TiO₂@Sb added MB, MX-Sb-M added MB and MX-Sb-H added MB solution and the efficiency were 32%, 38%, 50% and 65% for pure RhB solution, TiO₂@Sb added RhB, MX-Sb-M added RhB and MX-Sb-H added RhB solution. The photocatalytic activity of TiO₂@Sb, MX@Sb-M and MX@Sb-H was examined. Among these MX@Sb-H nanocomposite was demonstrated the high photocatalytic action in expressions of rate stability of photocatalytic dye degradations.