Large scale electrochemical synthesis of high quality carbon nanodots and their photocatalytic property

TLDR

A TiO₂/C‑dots photocatalyst was produced by combining C‑dots with TiO₂ via a simple hydrothermal process. The electrochemical synthesis yielded high‑purity, multi‑layer graphene‑oxide carbon nanodots that exhibit strong luminescence, peroxidase‑like activity, and visible‑light photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange, and when combined with TiO₂ the TiO₂/C‑dots photocatalyst shows superior visible‑light photocatalytic performance.

Abstract

High quality carbon nanodots (C-dots) with high purity were synthesized through a mild, one-step electrochemical approach, without the assistance of any chemicals but only pure water. This high productivity method makes the synthetic process of C-dots synthesis both economical as well as environment-friendly. The as prepared C-dots are predominantly multi-layer graphene oxide, with luminescence and high up-conversion photoluminescence (emission of light at shorter wavelengths than the excitation wavelength). Meanwhile, C-dots showed peroxidise mimetic function and visible-light-sensitive photocatalytic activity for methyl orange degradation. In addition, a novel photocatalyst (TiO2/C-dots) was obtained by combining C-dots with TiO2 through an easy hydrothermal method. Remarkably, TiO2/C-dots exhibited an excellent visible-light photocatalytic activity.