Fruitful fabrication of CDs on GO/g-C3N4 sheets layers: A carbon amalgamation for the remediation of carcinogenic pollutants

Abstract

Herein, for the first time, we developed a novel sheet-on-sheet and metal-free graphene oxide/graphitic carbon nitride/carbon dots (GO/g-C3N4/CDs) ternary nanocomposite was successfully constructed by a novel chemical route in hydrothermal environment and utilized as a visible light photocatalyst for the degradation of carcinogenic Rhodamine B (RhB) and crystal violet (CV) dyes. The crystalline structure and surface morphology of the as-prepared GO/g-C3N4/CDs ternary nanocomposite was systematically confirmed by FTIR, XRD, SEM, EDX, TEM, UV-DRS, and XPS techniques. The obtained UV–vis spectroscopy results demonstrate that GO/g-C3N4/CDs nanocomposite shows excellent reusable photocatalyst towards the degradation of RhB and CV dyes than pristine g-C3N4 and GO/g-C3N4. The enhanced photocatalytic performances could be ascribed to the balance between the band gap, morphology, crystalline quality and surface area which might be slow down the electron-hole recombination rates. Furthermore, the plausible mechanisms were described from the radical quenching experiments and the results are evident that the OH radical plays the vital role in the efficient photodegradation process. The superior photocatalytic activity and the reusable ability of the novel GO/g-C3N4/CDs nanocomposite could open a new window for the waste water treatment system.