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The morphology evolution of nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots/hollow TiO2 composites and their applications in photocatalysis

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Abstract

Design and controllable synthesis of photocatalysts and tailoring their catalytic property such as degradation performance of organic dyes are an interesting subject. We reported the preparation of nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots/TiO2 composites (N-CDs/TiO2) by hydrothermal process using urea and tetrabutyl titanate (TBT) as precursors. The morphology and chemical structure of N-CDs/TiO2 (N-CDs/TiO2-X, where X is the mass ratio of urea to TBT) were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and electron paramagnetic resonance. We found that the fine N-CDs have the specific properties that it can tune the growth behavior of TiO2 in micrometer size. With the decrease in the ratio of N-CDs to TBT, the morphology of as-fabricated N-CDs/TiO2 changes from hollow spheres, honeycomb to agglomerations bulks, with changing their crystalline phase accordingly. The degradation testing of rhodamine B (RhB) under visible-light irradiation (λ ≥ 400 nm) shows that the photocatalytic performance of N-CDs/TiO2-X substantially improved relative to pure TiO2, while calcinations process substantially decreased the catalytic activity. The optimal photocatalytic performance of N-CDs/TiO2-1 totally removed the RhB in 120 min, which is 11.42 times over that of TiO2. Radical trapping experiment and EPR spin-trapping study show that the ·O2− radical and h+ were the main active species that account for the photodegradation performance.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21873084 and 21473161), Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (LZ17B030001), Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (No. 1141172), and Zhejiang SCI-TECH University for 521 distinguished scholar’s scheme.

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  1. Department of Chemistry, and Key Laboratory of Advanced Textiles Materials and Manufacture Technology of the Ministry of Education, and Engineering Research Center for Eco-Dyeing and Finishing of Textiles of the Ministry of Education, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, 310018, People’s Republic of China

    Hao Ouyang, Hongqin Huang, Huigang Wang & Xvming Zheng

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  1. Hao Ouyang
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Correspondence to Huigang Wang.

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Ouyang, H., Huang, H., Wang, H. et al. The morphology evolution of nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots/hollow TiO2 composites and their applications in photocatalysis. J Mater Sci 55, 976–989 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-019-03991-x

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