Abstract—TiO
2, one of the most promising photocatalysts, is widely used in air purification, sewage treatment, water splitting, carbon dioxide reduction, and solar cells. However, TiO
2 can only absorb ultraviolet light, which makes up only a small fraction (< 4%) of the total solar spectrum. Therefore, we successfully prepared carbon dots (CDs) by low-voltage electrolysis of ethanol/sodium hydroxide/water mixture. TEM image shows that the prepared CDs are monodispersed spherical particles with a diameter of 3-5 nm. CDs-grafted TiO
2 nanorods (CDs-TiO
2 nanorods) were prepared by hydrothermal treatment of CDs and TiO
2 nanorod solution at 200ºC. TGA shows that the content of CDs in CDs-TiO
2 nanorods was about 0.8%. UV-Dis shows that CDs could significantly improve the visible light absorption property of TiO
2 nanorods. With methyl orange as a model pollutant, the photocatalytic activity of CDs-TiO
2 nanorods was 2.17 times higher than that of TiO
2 nanorods under visible light irradiation.
Index Terms—Carbon dots, photocatalytic activity, titanium dioxide, visible light.
S. Cai Author is with the Choate Rosemary Hall, Wallingford, CT 06492 USA (e-mail: acai20@choate.edu).
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Cite: Shimin Cai, "Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity of Carbon Dots Grafted TiO2 Nanorods," International Journal of Chemical Engineering and Applications vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 56-59, 2019.
