Room-Temperature Synthesis of Carbon Dot/TiO2 Composites with High Photocatalytic Activity

Benefiting from the wide-range absorption and adjustable energy gap, carbon dots (C-dots) have attracted a great deal of attention and they have been used to sensitize semiconductor nanocomposites to boost the efficiency of energy conversion devices, while there is still a lack of fundamental understanding of the interaction between such materials and their influence on the catalytic activity on the reaction process. In this study, C-dots were used to modify TiO2 to form a direct Z-scheme (DZS) junction for enhancement of the photocatalytic activity. The C-dot/TiO2 composite was prepared by ultrasonication at room temperature through coupling between the Ti–O–C bond and electrostatic interaction. The C-dots can dramatically enhance the absorption of the composite by forming the DZS, and the composite is enabled to generate more free radicals, which facilitate ∼10 times higher photocatalytic activity compared to that of TiO2. As a proof of concept, the as-prepared C-dot/TiO2 was used for textile wastewater dye degradation. This study provides an efficient approach for room-temperature preparation of C-dot/TiO2 composites with high photocatalytic activity.