In-Situ Growth of NiFe2O4/2D MoS2 p-n Heterojunction Immobilizing Palladium Nanoparticles for Enhanced Visible-Light Photocatalytic Activities

Solar energy is considered as a green and abundant energy for catalytic reactions. In this work, a magnetically recoverable NiFe2O4/2D MoS2–Pd nanocomposite is successfully synthesized via a simple one-pot hydrothermal method. The intimate interfacial contact between NiFe2O4 nanocubes and corrugated MoS2 nanosheets forms the NiFe2O4/2D MoS2 p-n heterojunction, while plasmonic Pd nanoparticles are uniformly immobilized on the surface of it. Dye degradation and Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reaction are employed to evaluate the photocatalytic activity of the NiFe2O4/2D MoS2–Pd nanocomposite. Significantly, both dye degradation and Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reaction can be efficiently performed in a short time under mild conditions. In comparison, the physically mixed NiFe2O4+2D MoS2 heterojunction immobilizing palladium nanoparticles shows poor photocatalytic activity. Photocatalytic results demonstrate that the in situ formation of NiFe2O4/2D MoS2 p-n heterojunction greatly improves the visible-light absorption an...