Solar-driven efficient heterogeneous subminute water disinfection nanosystem assembled with fingerprint MoS 2

Although heterogeneous water disinfection can avoid secondary pollution and other shortcomings in homogeneous systems, its low disinfection efficiency seriously hinders its development. Here we successfully address the aforementioned issues of heterogeneous disinfection by developing discrete nanoflakes of (Al 2 O 3 @ v- MoS 2 )/Cu/Fe 3 O 4 . Three exciting features are integrated into such a novel structure: bifacial vertically aligned nanofingerprint MoS 2 grown on both sides of the light-transparent Al 2 O 3 nanoflakes that can largely absorb sunlight, where both sides can operate simultaneously; a Cu-MoS 2 junction that enhances charge separation for the efficient generation of reactive oxygen species; and magnetic Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles that have magnetic separation capability and conveniently regenerate after disinfection. The (Al 2 O 3 @ v- MoS 2 )/Cu/Fe 3 O 4 nanostructures reported herein exhibit outstanding water disinfection with thorough inactivation of over 5.7 log 10 colony-forming units ml −1 Escherichia coli within 1 min in real sunlight (the system thermal effect has little impact on disinfection performances) as well as facile separation and stable long cycle reuse, demonstrating broad application prospects.