Studies on treatment of textile dyes using carbon dots as photocatalyst derived from spirulina platensis

Abstract

Worldwide, the textile industry gives strong financial support to newlineseveral countries because it offers more employment without any specific newlinetraining skills. Nevertheless, several dyes with harsh chemicals and large newlinevolumes of water are mainly used in the textile industry for the dyeing newlineprocess. But discharged effluents are toxic to living organisms if they are newlinereleased without any treatment. We for the first-time prepared novel and newlineefficient photocatalyst Carbon Quantum Dots (CQDs) from Spirulina newlineplatensis by the microwave-assisted method. The liquid and powder forms of newlineCQDs are distributed in 10 nm size studied by Transmission Electron newlineMicroscope (TEM), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), and Atomic Force newlineMicroscope (AFM). Apart from these analyses, particle size was confirmed newlineby a particle size analyzer. Optical properties including emission and newlineexcitation of CQDs were examined by Photoluminescence (PL) newlinespectrophotometer. CQDs also exhibit a strong cyan-blue fluorescence under newlineUV transilluminator. Functional groups of synthesized CQDs were newlinedetermined by Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FT-IR) analysis. Elemental newlineanalysis of CQDs was carried out by using Energy Dispersive X-ray newlinespectroscopy (EDX), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and X-ray Photoelectron newlineSpectroscopy (XPS). The scavenging activity of CQDs was studied by 2,2- newlinediphenylpicrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. newlineThe photocatalytic activity of CQDs was examined on various dyes newlineand different types of textile effluent. newline