Title
Metal free, phosphorus doped carbon nanodot mediated photocatalytic reduction of methylene blue
Year
2020
Journal
Reaction Kinetics, Mechanisms and Catalysis
Abstract
We report herein the photocatalytic activity of undoped carbon nanodots (CD) and phosphorus doped carbon nanodots (P-CD), which effectively degrades methylene blue (MB) dye under continuous irradiation of sunlight. The P-CD and CD were synthesized by the hydrothermal method using D-glucose anhydrous as the precursor. The morphological and structural characterization of P-CD was done using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). UV–Visible spectroscopic studies of CD and P-CD showed maximum optical absorption at 252 nm and 283 nm and interestingly P-CD exhibited an intense emission at 520 nm. The average radius of P-CD was found to be 2.19 nm. Use of P-CD and CD as photocatalysts in the degradation of methylene blue under direct sunlight irradiation yielded favourable results with a dye degradation rate of 0.02736 min−1 (standard error 0.00612) in presence of P-CD and a rate of 0.01645 min−1 (standard error 0.00342) in presence of CD. The self-degradation rate of MB was feeble compared to the rate of degradation with photocatalysts P-CD and CD.
Instrument
FP-8500
Keywords
Fluorescence, Photoluminescence, Color analysis, Optical properties, Materials