Degradation of methylene blue as a pollutant with N-doped graphene quantum dot/titanium dioxide nanocomposite

Methylene blue (MB) is produced as a water pollutant in textile, paper and dye industries. At this work, N-Doped Graphene Quantum Dots (N-GQDs)/Titanium Dioxide(TiO2) as new Nanocomposite is designed and used for removal of MB from water. N-GQDs is synthesized via hydrothermal procedure with citric acid and ethylene diamine as precursor. N-GQDs/TiO2 is synthesized via simple stirring of N-GQDs and TiO2 nanoparticles at 24 h. Synthesized N-GQDs and N-GQDsiTiO(2) is characterized with X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), FT-IR, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Ultra violet (UV) and Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. At the following, N-GQDs/TiO2 is used as catalyst for photodegradation of MB. Results shows that N-GQDs have excellent effect on photocatalytic behavior of TiO2 as common catalyst for photodegradation. By introducing of N-GQDs to TiO2 nano particles, photodegradation efficiency of TiO2 toward MB under UV light is increased from 40% to 85%. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.