Photocatalytic hydrogen generation coupled to pollutant utilisation using carbon dots produced from biomass

Abstract

Carbon dots from biomass waste as efficient photoabsorbers for sustainable and scalable coupled solar-driven H2 evolution and pollutant utilisation.

Solar Reforming of Biomass with Homogeneous Carbon Dots

“…α‐ cel ‐CDs (diameter: 9±3 nm) and g ‐N‐CDs (3±1 nm) are graphitic with (100) intralayer spacings of 3.0 and 2.4 Å, respectively . Powder XRD also suggests nanocrystalline, low defect graphitic structures for α‐ cel ‐CDs (27.6° 2 θ) and g ‐N‐CDs (27.0° 2 θ ), in agreement with Raman (graphitic content, G band, 1570–1580 cm −1 and defects, D band, 1331–1340 cm −1 ) and 13 C NMR spectroscopy (predominant sp 2 environments, δ =110–180 ppm, no sp 3 centers) . g ‐CDs (4±1 nm) are graphitic, whereas a ‐CDs (7±2 nm) are amorphous…”

“…Here, we introduce homogeneous carbon dots (CDs, Figure 1) produced from controlled, scalable calcination of cellulose (a-cel-CDs at 320 8C, Figure S1), [9] or commercial precursors such as citric acid (resulting in amorphous CDs, a-CDs at 180 8C, and graphitic CDs, g-CDs at 320 8C), [10] and aspartic acid (resulting in graphitic N-doped CDs at 320 8C, g-N-CDs; see SI) [10b, 11] for biomass PR. The non-toxic, biocompatible CDs are employed as light absorbers, together with a Ni bis(diphosphine) H 2 evolution cocatalyst (NiP, [12] Figure S2), to produce H 2 and organics in purified and untreated water under benign conditions (Figure 1 b).…”

Carbon Dots: Synthesis, Properties and Applications

“…Hence, aiming at a distinct perspective, we will compile a general review on the recent progress of the CDs. We intend to spotlight the latest advances in the CDs research, focus on synthesis, PL mechanism, and applications of CDs in this feature review [34][35][36][37][38]. Specifically, we first mainly summarize the synthesis routes to produce the CDs from different resources in especially low cost, and environmentally friendly natural biomass in Section 2.…”

Solar Reforming of Biomass with Homogeneous Carbon Dots

“…Here, we introduce homogeneous carbon dots (CDs, Figure ) produced from controlled, scalable calcination of cellulose (α‐ cel ‐CDs at 320 °C, Figure S1), or commercial precursors such as citric acid (resulting in amorphous CDs, a ‐CDs at 180 °C, and graphitic CDs, g ‐CDs at 320 °C), and aspartic acid (resulting in graphitic N‐doped CDs at 320 °C, g ‐N‐CDs; see SI) for biomass PR. The non‐toxic, biocompatible CDs are employed as light absorbers, together with a Ni bis(diphosphine) H 2 evolution cocatalyst ( NiP , Figure S2), to produce H 2 and organics in purified and untreated water under benign conditions (Figure b).…”