There has been a growing interest in the occurrence and fate of emerging organic pollutants within both terrestrial and marine aquatic environments in the last few decades. Since the long-term health effects of emerging contaminants (EPs) in water, it is therefore urgent to develop an effective remediation route to tackle the impact of EPs. Photocatalytic (PC) reaction is one of promising ways to mitigate global issues associated with environmental pollution as well as solar energy conversion, and efficient photocatalysis performance depends on the catalyst’s property. The application of semiconductor photocatalysts such as TiO2, ZnO, CdS are widely reported. However, the use of these materials is limited by its wide band gap energy, which can be overcome by loading of a cocatalyst to improve the photocatalytic performance under visible light. This study developed a novel heterogeneous photocatalyst using carbon quantum dots incorporating with TiO2 via a simple and facile one-pot method. In the UV-Vis spectra of CQDs, two peaks at around 263 and 360 nm were observed. Based on the result of XRD and FTIR, CQDs were firmly decorated on the surface of TiO2 nanoparticles. We further investigated the photocatalytic performance of the CQDs based nanohybrid materials for the degradation of pharmaceutical compounds under UV and visible light. The results showed the better photocatalytic performance was obtained under visible light irradiation, but excessive CQDs led to a decrease in degradability. The results suggest that CQDs played an important role in enhancing photocatalytic performances of CQDs/TiO2 nanohybrids. It was also found that hydroxyl radicals generated during the reaction enhanced the photocatalytic ability of TiO2 by CQDs under visible light, which provide a new insight into development of visible light driven photocatalysts for efficient environmental remediation.

Development of a novel and sustainable photocatalyst using carbon quantum dots incorporated with earth abundant materials for environmental implication

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ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.