Dual mode detection and sunlight-driven photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline with tailor-made N-doped carbon dots.

Carbon dots have emerged as one of the most promising materials with various potential applications derived from their unique photophysical and chemical properties. The present work investigates the electrochemical and photochemical properties of one-pot synthesized carbon dots for environmental sustainability. Facile microwave-assisted pyrolysis of urea and glucose yielded nitrogen doped carbon dots (N-doped carbon dots) with blue fluorescence and a quantum yield of 14.9%. As synthesized N- doped carbon dot had intense fluorescence, stability, water solubility, and biocompatibility. In the sensing studies, N-doped carbon dots appeared as a dual sensor for drug tetracycline with excellent sensitivity and selectivity. Beyond sense, the carbon dots have the potential to act as a photocatalyst for the degradation of tetracycline. Further, N-doped carbon dot could bring exhaustive degradation of tetracycline (>95%) within 10 min in the absence of any additives. This is the first time report on the utilization of raw non-metal doped carbon dots as a photocatalyst for the degradation of tetracycline.

Biomass-derived carbon dots as a sensitive and selective dual detection platform for fluoroquinolones and tetracyclines.

A novel carbon dot (CD) was synthesized through the facile and simple hydrothermal method from Curcuma amada, as the precursor for the first time. These CDs with an average diameter of 4.6 nm display blue fluorescence, with excitation/emission maxima at 360/445 nm and a quantum yield of 14.1%. It exhibited high stability under different conditions and was characterized using various techniques. These CDs can be employed as a dual-sensing platform to detect tetracyclines and fluoroquinolones, two antibiotic classes. Even though antibiotics are regarded as an inevitable commodity, overuse and improper management of discarded antibiotics pose a severe threat to the environment. Herein, we developed a dual-sensing, biocompatible sensor with high selectivity and sensitivity to detect antibiotics. CD was employed as a fluorescence probe and detected tetracycline and fluoroquinolone antibiotic through inner filter effect-based fluorescence quenching and hydrogen bonding-based enhancement process, respectively. The linear range was 0-16 µM and the detection limit was 33 nM for tetracycline and 2 nM for fluoroquinolone antibiotic. As an electrochemical probe, CD selectively detected tetracycline with a lower detection limit of 0.5 nM over a linear range of 0-16 µM. Using both methods, a real sample analysis of the developed sensor exhibited accurate reliability and precision.

Rational design of Ag2CO3-loaded SGO heterostructure with enhanced photocatalytic abatement of organic pollutants under visible light irradiation.

The photocatalytic activity of semiconducting silver carbonate was restricted by the lower stability and fast recombination rate of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. Sulfur-doped graphene oxide (SGO) is used as a cocatalyst for improving the photocatalytic activity of Ag2CO3 by reducing the recombination rate. A simple precipitation method was used for the modification of silver carbonate. The chemical, physical, optical, and electrochemical properties of the modified photocatalyst was characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, UV-vis DRS, XPS, CV, impedance, and amperometry. The fabricated SGO-Ag2CO3 composite was successfully degraded various organic pollutants such as methylene blue (MB), rhodamine B(RhB), methyl orange (MO), tartrazine, and thiram with augmented mineralization. The optimization of weight percentage of the developed binary composite with 0.5% SGO-Ag2CO3 showed enhanced photocatalytic degradation and followed pseudo-first-order kinetics with rate constant 0.126. More than 90% of degradation efficiency of the pollutants within a short time promises the binary heterostructure for future industrial applications. The excellent stability and reproducibility of the composite opened a new route in the treatment of wastewater.

A Review on Carbon Quantum Dot Based Semiconductor Photocatalysts for the Abatement of Refractory Pollutants.

Photocatalysis is a green approach frequently utilised to eliminate a variety of environmentally hazardous refractory pollutants. Accordingly, the modification of semiconductor photocatalysts with Carbon Quantum Dots (CQDs) is of great importance for the treatment of such pollutants due to their attractive physical and chemical properties. CQDs are a perfect candidate to handle photocatalysts of high-performance since they operate as co-catalysts and as visible light harvesters. The higher separation rate of electron-hole pairs in the photocatalytic system is attributable to better photodegradation efficiency. This review classifies CQD based photocatalysts as pure, doped and composite materials and discusses the specific advantages of CQDs in visible light-driven photocatalysis. In this work, the versatile roles of CQDs in CQD-based photocatalytic systems are thoroughly discussed and summarised.

A Review on Characterization Techniques for Carbon Quantum Dots and Their Applications in Agrochemical Residue Detection.

Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) have emerged as one of the most promising nanomaterials in the carbon nanostructures family in recent years due to their low toxicity, simple synthetic methods, unique fluorescence emission, good photostability, excellent water solubility, high specific surface areas and outstanding electronic properties. They have thus been employed in a wide range of applications, including fluorescent sensing, electrochemical sensing, bioimaging, drug delivery, antimicrobial studies, antioxidants, and photocatalysis. CQDs drawn great interest in sensing applications due to their unique photochemical, electrochemical and electrochemiluminescence properties. They exhibit excitation wavelength-dependent or -independent photoluminescence (PL) behaviour, high quantum yield, and promising binding ability with analytes, which make them an ideal candidate for use in PL based sensing platforms. Excessive use of agrochemicals in farm fields can pollute the environment and have potentially adverse health effects on aquatic and human life. Since there are very few monitoring techniques are available for sensing such harmful substances, there is an urgent need to develop a sensor for the facile, rapid and on-site detection and quantification of agrochemical residues in the environment. Several CQD-based fluorophores for detecting agrochemical residues employing static or dynamic quenching processes have recently been published. The key quenching mechanisms involved in the sensing process include FRET, PET and IFE. The first part of this review intends to provide a comprehensive overview of various techniques to characterize CQDs such as UV-vis., FT-IR, PL, XRD, NMR, TEM, TGA, XPS and Raman analysis. In addition application of CQDs as fluorescent sensors for agrochemical residue in different media are summarized in this reiew. The LOD values and rapid action of the sensor demonstrates significant advantages of these methods over conventional analytical procedures.