In-situ oxidative polymerization of aniline on hydrothermally synthesized MoSe2 for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes

Abstract

In this paper, we report synthesis of MoSe2-polyaniline by in-situ polymerization method. Simple and eco-friendly hydrothermal technique is used for the synthesis of MoSe2. Sample characterizations were done using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), UV–vis Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman Spectroscopy. Photocatalytic dye degradation was performed using nanocomposite on Methylene blue (MB) and Methyl orange (MO). Photocatalytic degradation efficiency (ƞ) was found to be ∼65% and ∼94% for MB and MO, respectively. Reaction kinetics were studied and fitted well with pseudo first order model because of the mesoporous structure of polyaniline (PANI). Material reusability and regenerability was also checked for number of cycles.