Hydrothermally synthesized micron sized, broom-shaped MoSe₂ nanostructures for superior photocatalytic water purification

In the present work, we are reporting micron sized broom-shaped MoSe₂ nanostructures. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) confirmed the broom shaped morphology with an average diameter∼150 nm and length ∼10 μm. X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) studies confirmed the highly crystalline hexagonal phase of MoSe_2, nanostructures. The band gap of the material was estimated to be 1.8 eV by Tauc's plot. Broom-shaped MoSe₂ nanostructures acted as an efficient photocatalytic material as tested on an organic pollutant viz. Methylene Blue (MB) with degradation efficiency ∼90% in first 20 min of experiment and rate kinetics were also studied that fitted well with the pseudo-second-order model. (paper)