Gold nanoparticles decorated MoS2 nanosheets for sensing and degradation of carbamazepine in environmental wastewater

Trace pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) have led to environmental contaminant and health risk. In this work, by in-situ reduction method, gold nanoparticles are loaded on the surface of the ultrathin MoS2 nanosheets to prepare AuNPs/MoS2 nanocomposites. AuNPs/MoS2 nanocomposites generate the superior localized surface plasmon resonance field due to the presence of nanogap between neighboring AuNPs and electron transfer within boundary of metal and semiconductor, which contributing great surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) effect. AuNPs/MoS2 nanocomposites-based SERS protocol is developed and successfully utilized to detect carbamazepine (CBZ) in wastewater. It presented a linear concentration ranging from 10−3 to 10−9 mol/L (R2=0.985) and a limit of detection about 1.36 × 10−10 mol/L, which foreboded the possibility for trace analysis. In addition, AuNPs/MoS2 nanocomposites with topological effect providing Mo4+ active sites and many defects present peroxidase-like activity to catalyze H2O2, forming radical oxide species (ROS) including ⋅OH, O2⋅− and 1O2. Herein, AuNPs/MoS2 nanocomposites as nanozyme with durability in environment are firstly used to catalytically degrade CBZ in wastewater by H2O2, showing high efficiency. Application of AuNPs/MoS2 nanocomposites as nanozyme to deal with pollution problems paves a promising paradigm for promoting the environmental and health safeties.