Visible-light driven photocatalytic degradation of pharmaceutical and dye pollutants using CuS@Polythiophene nanohybrids.

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of persistent organic pollutants in aquatic environments has driven the urgent need for advanced photocatalytic materials that enable efficient, sustainable, and eco-friendly wastewater treatment. Integrating efficient pollutant degradation with sustainable wastewater treatment remains a significant challenge. Herein, the type II heterojunction features a CuS@PTh heterostructure demonstrating remarkable photocatalytic activity against pharmaceutical pollutants such as tetracycline (TC, 2.437 × 10-2 min-1), achieving 93% degradation in 100 min, and ciprofloxacin (CIP, 1.342 × 10-2 min-1) about 90% in 150 minutes under visible-light irradiation. In addition, the prepared nanohybrid degrades the organic dye pollutants such as Rhodamine B (RhB) and Brilliant Blue (BB) the efficiency is 40% and 48%, respectively. FE-SEM and HR-TEM analysis revealed the uniform anchoring of CuS nanoparticles (NPs) within the polythiophene matrix. XPS confirmed the characteristic Cu2+ and S 2p states, evidencing the formation of a heterostructure. Optical studies reveal that the CuS@PTh nanohybrid exhibits a narrow bandgap of 1.98 eV. The strong interfacial interaction between CuS and PTh facilitates effective charge transfer and suppresses charge recombination, leading to enhanced photocatalytic activity.

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