ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

N-Doped carbon dots decorated ceria hollow spheres for enhanced activity of RhB degradation by visible light

Fuqing Zhang, Yihui He, Weixin Li, Lei Zhao, Hui Chen, Xuan He, and Jia Guo

Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China

E-mail: liweixin@wust.edu.cn

Abstract: The fabrication of low-cost and environmentally friendly photocatalysts with superior photodegradation efficiency remains one of the most pressing challenges in present research. Herein, we elaborately designed and synthesized a promising N-doped carbon quantum dots/CeO₂ hollow microsphere (NCQDs/h-CeO₂) photocatalyst with superior photoresponse property and photoactivity in visible light. The removal efficiencies of rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light illumination for NCQDs/h-CeO₂ exhibits a 30.3% enhancement compared with pure h-CeO₂. The results of EIS and PL imply that the excellent performance may be attributed to the strong synergistic effect between NCQDs and h-CeO_2, thus effectively promoting charge transfer and restraining the recombination of photogenerated holes and electrons. Accordingly, a synergistic photocatalysis mechanism was proposed to explain the photocatalytic reaction process. Besides, the NCQDs/h-CeO₂ exhibits better cycle stability than common CQDs/h-CeO₂ after a four-cycle photocatalytic test. Therefore, the NCQDs/h-CeO₂ may represent a promising strategy for the current water pollution issues.

Keywords: N-doped carbon quantum dots ; Visible light ; Photodegradation ; Synergistic effect 

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-018-0395-9

Chemical Papers 72 (6) 1417–1426 (2018)