Amalgamation of N-graphene quantum dots with nanocubic like TiO2: an insight study of sunlight sensitive photocatalysis.

In this work, a sunlight-sensitive photocatalyst of nanocubic-like titanium dioxide (TiO2) and N-doped graphene quantum dots (N-GQDs) is developed through a simple hydrothermal and physical mixing method. The successful amalgamation composite photocatalyst characteristics were comprehensively scrutinized through various physical and chemical analyses. A complete removal of bisphenol A (BPA) is attained by a synthesized composite after 30 min of sunlight irradiation as compared to pure TiO2. This clearly proved the unique contribution of N-GQDs that enhanced the ability of light harvesting especially under visible light and near-infrared region. This superior characteristic enables it to maximize the absorbance in the entire solar spectrum. However, the increase of N-GQDs weight percentage has created massive oxygen vacancies that suppress the generation of active radicals. This resulted in a longer duration for a complete removal of BPA as compared to lower weight percentage of N-GQDs. Hence, this finding can offer a new insight in developing effective sunlight-sensitive photocatalysts for various complex organic pollutants degradation.

M/g-C3N4 (M=Ag, Au, and Pd) composite: synthesis via sunlight photodeposition and application towards the degradation of bisphenol A.

In this work, natural sunlight successfully induced the deposition of gold (Au), silver (Ag), and palladium (Pd) nanoparticles (NPs) with 17.10, 9.07, and 12.70 wt% onto the surface of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4). The photocatalytic evaluation was carried out by adopting Bisphenol A (BPA) as a pollutant under natural sunlight irradiation. The presence of noble metals was confirmed by EDX, HRTEM, and XPS analysis. The deposition of Ag NPs (7.9 nm) resulted in the degradation rate which was 2.15-fold higher than pure g-C3N4 due to its relatively small particle size, contributing to superior charge separation efficiency. Au/g-C3N4 unveiled inferior photoactivity because the LSPR phenomenon provided two pathways for electron transfer between Au NPs and g-C3N4 further diminished the performance. The improved degradation lies crucially on the particle size and Schottky barrier formation at the interface of M/g-C3N4 (M=Au, Ag, and Pd) but not the visible light harvesting properties. The mechanism insight revealed the holes (h+) and superoxide radical (•O2-) radical actively involved in photocatalytic reaction for all composites.