Formation of carbon quantum dots and graphene nanosheets from different abundant carbonaceous materials

Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) and graphene nanosheets (GNs) are one of the most attractive fluorescent carbon nano-sized materials with unique features of optical and physico-chemical properties having various applications in chemical sensing, biomedicine, semiconductor devices, photo-catalyzing, and electrocatalysis. The primary purpose of this preliminary work is the feasibility study for synthesis of nano-structured value-added carbon products i.e., CQDs and GNs from cheap and abundant carbon sources, such as coal, petroleum coke, graphite, and coal-based humic acid by hydrothermal techniques. The physico-chemical properties of the raw precursors were evaluated by proximate and ultimate analysis. High resolution-transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transforms infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffractometer (XRD), UV-visible (UV-vis), and fluorescence (FL) spectroscopy were used to achieve physico-chemical parameters of carbon nanostructures, to better comprehend the development of carbon quantum dots and graphene nanosheets. HR-TEM analysis indicates that the dimensions of the synthesized CQDs from different carbon sources exist in the range of 3-6.5 nm. The approximate quantum yields (QY) of the synthesized carbon nanomaterials were found to be about 2-22%. The synthesized carbon based nanomaterials (i.e. CQDs and GNs) have been efficiently used in the photo-degradation of harmful 2-nitrophenols (2-NP) with the efficiency of 80.79% for CQDs and 82.53% for GNs, respectively. The present study provides a simple and efficient technique for large-scale fabrication of typical CQDs and GNs from abundantly available low-grade coal and other carbonaceous materials for photo-catalysis application.