Gel-like carbon dots: A high-performance future photocatalyst.

Autor: Zhou Y; Department of Chemistry, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA., ElMetwally AE; Department of Chemistry, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA; Petrochemicals Department, Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute, Nasr City, Cairo 11727, Egypt., Chen J; Department of Chemistry, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA., Shi W; National Center for International Research on Photoelectric and Energy Materials, School of Materials and Energy, Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan 650091, People's Republic of China., Cilingir EK; Department of Chemistry, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA., Walters B; Department of Biology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA., Mintz KJ; Department of Chemistry, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA., Martin C; Department of Chemistry, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA., Ferreira BCLB; Department of Chemistry, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA., Zhang W; Department of Chemistry, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA., Hettiarachchi SD; Department of Chemistry, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA., Serafim LF; Department of Chemistry, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA., Blackwelder PL; Department of Chemistry, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA; MGS/RSMAS, University of Miami, Key Biscayne, FL 33149, USA., Wikramanayake AH; Department of Biology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA., Peng Z; National Center for International Research on Photoelectric and Energy Materials, School of Materials and Energy, Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan 650091, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: zhilip@ynu.edu.cn., Leblanc RM; Department of Chemistry, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA. Electronic address: rml@miami.edu.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Journal of colloid and interface science [J Colloid Interface Sci] 2021 Oct; Vol. 599, pp. 519-532. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Apr 28.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.04.121
Abstrakt: To protect water resources, halt waterborne diseases, and prevent future water crises, photocatalytic degradation of water pollutants arouse worldwide interest. However, considering the low degradation efficiency and risk of secondary pollution displayed by most metal-based photocatalysts, highly efficient and environmentally friendly photocatalysts with appropriate band gap, such as carbon dots (CDs), are in urgent demand. In this study, the photocatalytic activity of gel-like CDs (G-CDs) was studied using diverse water pollution models for photocatalytic degradation. The degradation rate constants demonstrated a remarkably enhanced photocatalytic activity of G-CDs compared with most known CD species and comparability to graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ). In addition, the rate constant was further improved by 1.4 times through the embedment of g-C 3 N 4 in G-CDs to obtain CD-C 3 N 4 . Significantly, the rate constant was also higher than that of g-C 3 N 4 alone, revealing a synergistic effect. Moreover, the use of diverse radical scavengers suggested that the main contributors to the photocatalytic degradation with G-CDs alone were superoxide radicals (O 2 - ) and holes that were, however, substituted by O 2 - and hydroxyl radicals (OH) due to the addition of g-C 3 N 4 . Furthermore, the photocatalytic stabilities of G-CDs and CD-C 3 N 4 turned out to be excellent after four cycles of dye degradation were performed continuously. Eventually, the nontoxicity and environmental friendliness of G-CDs and CD-C 3 N 4 were displayed with sea urchin cytotoxicity tests. Hence, through various characterizations, photocatalytic degradation and cytotoxicity tests, G-CDs proved to be an environmentally friendly and highly efficient future photocatalyst.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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