Lignin-derived carbon quantum dots/Ni-MOL heterojunction from red phosphorus-assisted ball milling pretreatment and their application in photocatalysis: An insight from experiment and DFT calculation

Abstract

The constructing defects by doping phosphorus elements are limited by high energy consumption, environment pollution and long preparation time. In this work, lignin-derived carbon quantum dots/nickel metal-organic layer (Ni-MOL) heterojunction was successfully prepared by red phosphorus-assisted ball milling pretreatment . And the application in photocatalytic tetracycline (TC) degradation have been investigated systematically by the combination of the calculational and experimental methods. The maximum degradation rate was 98.98% for P(1.0)-CD/Ni-MOL in 120 min under visible light condition. P-doping was beneficial to reduce the electron transport resistance. Moreover, it increased the hydrophilicity but reduced the position of conduction band, thus more active •O 2 - for TC degradation were generated. Hence, the novel photocatalyst prepared by the simple and low energy consumption method is expected to treat TC wastewater effectively and this work makes a contribution to the perfection of P-doped photocatalysts. • Red phosphorus-assisted ball milling pretreatment were firstly used to prepare P-CD/Ni-MOL photocatalyst. • P-doping can reduce electron transport resistance, increase the hydrophilicity and reduce the position of conduction band. • Tetracycline can be rapidly and thoroughly degraded in water by P-CD/Ni-MOL.