Solar-driven efficient heterogeneous subminute water disinfection nanosystem assembled with fingerprint MoS₂

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 (Al₂O₃@v-MoS₂)/Cu/Fe₃O₄. Three exciting features are integrated into such a novel structure: bifacial vertically aligned nanofingerprint MoS₂ grown on both sides of the light-transparent Al₂O₃ nanoflakes that can largely absorb sunlight, where both sides can operate simultaneously; a Cu-MoS₂ junction that enhances charge separation for the efficient generation of reactive oxygen species; and magnetic Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles that have magnetic separation capability and conveniently regenerate after disinfection. The (Al₂O₃@v-MoS₂)/Cu/Fe₃O₄ nanostructures reported herein exhibit outstanding water disinfection with thorough inactivation of over 5.7 log₁₀ colony-forming units ml⁻¹Escherichia 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.