Preparation, characterization and photodegradation activity of zinc oxide/ carbon quantum dots (ZnO/CQDs) and zinc oxide/ S-doped carbon quantum dots (ZnO/S-CQDs) nanocomposites. | ||
| Delta Journal of Science | ||
| Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available Online from 13 September 2025 | ||
| Document Type: Research and Reference | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/djs.2025.413178.1229 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Reham Saudi Elzaablawy* 1; Saleh abdelazim1; Elzeiny M. Ebeid1; Dr. Samy A. Eldaly2; abdelhamid El-Sawy1 | ||
| 1Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt. | ||
| 2Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Carbon quantum dots (CQDs), a class of novel fluorescent nanomaterials, have garnered significant interest due to their diverse applications in biosensing, bioimaging, nanomedicine, and photocatalysis. Owing to their distinctive optical and electrochemical properties, CQDs are particularly promising for photocatalytic applications. The role of heteroatom-doped CQDs in enhancing the photocatalytic efficiency of ZnO/CQDs nanoparticles is reported. The CQDs, including those doped with heteroatoms, were synthesized via a hydrothermal method, while ZnO nanoparticles were produced using a precipitation technique. Composite materials incorporating doped sulfur atoms were fabricated through an impregnation approach at ambient temperature. The resulting catalysts were thoroughly characterized using FTIR, XRD, XPS, TGA, SEM, and TEM analyses, confirming successful synthesis and integration of the nanocomposites. Photocatalytic experiments revealed that ZnO/S-CQDs achieved a methylene blue (MB) degradation efficiency of up to 79.5 %, outperforming other catalysts tested. Furthermore, the band gap energy of pristine ZnO/CQDs (3.01 eV) was reduced to 2.97 eV upon modification with S-CQDs. These findings indicate that although ZnO/CQDs nanoparticles possess a limited photocatalytic response to UV light due to their relatively large band gap, the incorporation of heteroatom-doped CQDs significantly enhances their optical and electronic properties, thereby improving their overall photocatalytic performance. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Carbon quantum dots; heteroatom doping; zinc oxide; photocatalysis; methylene blue degradation | ||
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