Sunlight promoted removal of toxic hexavalent chromium by cellulose derived photoactive carbon dots
Journal article, 2022

A scalable synthetic procedure for fabricating photoactive carbon dots (CD) from microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) is presented. The MCC was transformed into a photoactive nanosized CD by a one-step acid-assisted thermal-carbonization (~90 °C for 30 min). The efficiency of the obtained CD was determined by photo-removal of toxic hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) ions from wastewater. CD obtained from cellulose completely removed 20 ppm of Cr(VI) wastewater within ∼120 min under sunlight illumination. No Cr(VI) removal was observed in dark conditions and with control cellulose material as reference samples. The Cr(VI) removal follows pseudo-first-order kinetics along with a half-life of ∼26 min. Furthermore, the Cr(VI) removal from wastewater was supported via cyclic voltammetry analysis. Using a low-cost, naturally available cellulose material and sulfuric acid, the world's most-used chemical, creates techno-economic prerequisites for a scalable process of photoactive carbon dots.

Biomass

Photocatalysis

Heavy metal removal

Acid assisted carbonization

Author

Ruchi Aggarwal

Malaviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur

Deepika Saini

Malaviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur

Sumit Kumar Sonkar

Malaviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur

Amit Kumar Sonker

Massachusetts General Hospital

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Gunnar Westman

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Massachusetts General Hospital

Chemosphere

0045-6535 (ISSN) 18791298 (eISSN)

Vol. 287 132287

Subject Categories

Polymer Technologies

Materials Chemistry

Water Treatment

DOI

10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.132287

PubMed

34563775

More information

Latest update

1/25/2023