Natural Cotton Cellulose-Supported TiO2 Quantum Dots for the Highly Efficient Photocatalytic Degradation of Dyes

Abstract

The artificial photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants has emerged as a promising approach to purifying the water environment. The core issue of this ongoing research is to construct efficient but easily recyclable photocatalysts without quadratic harm. Here, we report an eco-friendly photocatalyst with in situ generated TiO2 quantum dots (TQDs) on natural cotton cellulose (CC) by a simple one-step hydrothermal method. The porous fine structure and abundant hydroxyl groups control the shape growth and improve the stability of nanoparticles, making natural CC suitable for TQDs. The TQDs/CC photocatalyst was synthesized without the chemical modification of the TQDs. FE-SEM and TEM results showed that 5–6 nm TQDs are uniformly decorated on the CC surface. The long-term stability in photocatalytic activity and structure of more than ten cycles directly demonstrates the stability of CC on TQDs. With larger CC sizes, TQDs are easier to recycle. The TQDs/CC photocatalysts show impressive potential in the photocatalytic degradation of anionic methyl orange (MO) dyes and cationic rhodamine B (RhB) dyes.

TiO2 Quantum Dots/Fe3S4 Heterojunction Nanocomposites for Efficient Ammonia Production through Nitrogen Fixation upon Simulated Sunlight

“…30 This shift leads to an increase in the energy gap due to electron confinement, resulting in the development of a more negative CB for TiO 2 QDs, which leads to an increase in the reductive power of the collected electrons at this energy level. 31 In addition, the pure Fe 3 S 4 sample exhibits broad absorption in the complete visible range due to its black sediments. As noted, by combining TiO 2 QDs with Fe 3 S 4 , the absorption edge of the nanocomposites significantly increases, which indicates an enhancement in the ability of nanocomposites to absorb visible light.…”

“…The shift to shorter wavelengths in TiO 2 QDs indicates the formation of finer particles . This shift leads to an increase in the energy gap due to electron confinement, resulting in the development of a more negative CB for TiO 2 QDs, which leads to an increase in the reductive power of the collected electrons at this energy level . In addition, the pure Fe 3 S 4 sample exhibits broad absorption in the complete visible range due to its black sediments.…”

Progress on quantum dot photocatalysts for biomass valorization

“…[68] In addition, cellulose can also be combined with QDs for photocatalytic degradation of dyes, drug delivery, and antimicrobial applications. [69][70][71] HMF and furfural are the key intermediates in cellulosic biomass conversion, which are significant industrial and pharmaceutical chemicals that originate from the depolymerization of C6 carbohydrates. [72,73] The United States Department of Energy has listed HMF as value-added biomass-derived platform chemicals and has garnered significant global research attention in recent years.…”

Efficient photodegradation of methyl red dye by kaolin clay supported zinc oxide nanoparticles with their antibacterial and antioxidant activities

“…Organic dyes have been used widely for various industrial colouring processes [ 1 ] in different industries like textile, pulp, paper, leather, cosmetics, dyestuffs, food packaging, plastic and chemical industries [ [2] , [3] , [4] ]. The industrial syntheses and manufacturing processes bring up about ∼20% organic dyes loss to aquatic environments [ 5 ]. The discharged dyes containing wastewater into the natural environment severely damage the ecosystem and cause a series of hazards to humans upon exposure, like anaemic, carcinogenesis and neurological disorders [ 6 ].…”