Impregnating of chitosan onto MoC nanosheets for daylight influenced photocatalytic water remediation

Abstract

Abstract The functionalization of nanoparticles with 2D nanosheets is an attractive strategy to enhance their functional properties for removing pollutants. Therefore, this work demonstrates the construction of 2D-delaminated molybdenum carbide (MXene) chitosan nanocomposite (2D-d-Mo2CTx-Cs NCs, Tx-surface terminating groups O, OH, and F) with outstanding antibacterial and photocatalytic properties for dye adsorption. Further investigations were conducted using XRD, SEM, TEM, and XPS to characterize the synthesized composites. FESEM images of the prepared 2D-d-Mo2CTx-Cs NCs samples showed irregularly structured nanosheet material. An HRTEM image of NCs revealed 2D-d-Mo2CTx nanosheets (NSs) impregnated onto Cs with an average size of 50 nm. Additionally, when exposed to sunlight, the constructed composites successfully adsorb methylene blue with adsorption capacities of 90%. As a result of the synergistic effect of Cs and d-Mo2CTx, they showed dominant antibacterial activity against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Further, a biocompatibility test of Mo2CTx-Cs NCs confirmed satisfactory results. The findings of this study reveals that d-Mo2CTx-Cs NCs may have significant promise for antibacterial wound dressings with broad-spectrum activity due to the fabrication of 2D-d-Mo2CTx NSs with Cs network structure. Furthermore, this is the first report describing the use of d-Mo2CTx NCs for antibacterial photocatalytic applications.