Carbon dots for remediation of organic pollutants

Abstract

This project aims to synthesize nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur doped carbon dots (N, S, P-TFCD) to study the photophysical and morphological properties and to further explore its application for remediation of organic pollutants. The carbon dots (c-dots) have been synthesized from the flower extract of Cascabela thevetia through simple and facile hydrothermal method. Further, these c-dots have been explored for sensing and photodegradation purpose. The obtained N, S, P-TFCD with quantum yield of 16.5% is utilised for the rapid, selective, and sensitive detection of picric acid (PA) to due environment and health safety issue. The PA shows fluorescence (FL) sensing response towards N, S, P-TFCD with good linear of R2 = 0.9976 and limit of detection (LOD) was found to be 104 nM (range of 0-60 μM). For real time application and rapid detection of PA, the thin film was fabricated by c-dots and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF). The LOD for thin film toward PA was found to be 234 nM. Further, the photocatalytic properties of c-dots have been explored for degradation of an azo dye, methyl orange (MO) under blue light and sunlight which is highly toxic organic pollutant for environment as well as for human health. The rate of degradation in case of sunlight is more than in case of visible light which implies that sunlight is a favoured environment friendly light source for the photodegradation of MO. In addition, the above-mentioned application was successfully used in real water samples. The methodology reported here opens a new window in real and on-site applications.