Photo degradation of methylene blue onto Boron/Phosphorous modified carbons dots prepared by hydrothermal and microwave assisted methods

Abstract

In this work boron and phosphorous co-doped carbon quantum dots were synthesized using hydrothermal and microwave assisted heating. Modified carbon dots were used for their applications in removal of methylene blue from waste water. Effect of photo-reactor design parameter (power of light source, distance between light source and reactor) and pH was investigated and was optimized at pH 11. It was observed that the carbon dots prepared by microwave assisted method were more efficient in terms of methylene blue degradation with higher Methylene blue removal upto 92.3%. Kinetics behind degradation of methylene blue by using pseudo first and pseudo second order models was studied with regression coefficient value 0.9934. Effect of diffusion parameter on the methylene blue removal was studied using intraparticle, film and Boyd models.

Keywords

• Carbon dots
• Synthesis
• Dye removal
• Photocatalytic reactor parameters