Effects of the aspect ratio on the piezocatalytic performance of self-assembled hierarchical MoS2 nanotubes for degradation of sulfamethazine

MoS 2 nanotubes with large aspect ratio exhibited the superior piezocatalytic activity for the degradation of sulfamethazine. • Hierarchical MoS 2 NTs piezocatalysts were fabricated for antibiotics degradation. • MoS 2 NTs-13 with high aspect ratios showed excellent SMZ antibiotics degradation performance and reusability. • ·OH and·O 2 – radicals were responsible for SMZ degradation. • The excellent electrochemical properties of MoS 2 NTs-13 benefited the efficient separation and transfer of charge carriers. • Possible SMZ degradation pathway was proposed based on identified degradation intermediates. In this manuscript, hierarchical MoS 2 nanotubes (NTs) with different aspect ratio (length/diameter) were successfully synthesized via one-step solvothermal method for piezocatalytic applications. SEM indicated that the constructed MoS 2 NTs-13 had perfect uniformity while TEM demonstrated the hollow interior. Such hierarchical tubular structures consisting of cross-linked MoS 2 single-/few-layered nanosheets featured large specific surface area (85.83 m 2 g −1 ) and high porosity. The MoS 2 NTs-13 with high aspect ratio exhibited the optimum piezocatalytic performance, achieving 93.26% degradation efficiency for sulfamethazine (SMZ, 20 mg/L) within 10 min, leading to a high first-order rate constant of 0.2486 min −1 , which was 2.48 times higher than that of MoS 2 NTs-10. Piezoelectrochemical measurements suggested that MoS 2 NTs-13 displayed stronger piezoelectric current response and lower charge transfer resistance. The radical trapping experiments and electron spin resonance analysis confirmed that hydroxyl radicals ( OH) and superoxide radicals ( O 2 – ) were the main reactive oxygen species (ROS) for SMZ degradation. Furthermore, six degradation intermediates of SMZ were identified and two possible degradation pathways were proposed. This work provides design strategies for optimizing structural stability of ultrathin two-dimensional nanomaterials, and offers a highly efficient method for typical antibiotics removal.