Design and mechanism insight on SiC quantum dots sensitized inverse opal TiO<sub>2</sub> with superior photocatalytic activities under sunlight

doi:10.1007/s11705-023-2350-8

Front. Chem. Sci. Eng.

2023, Vol. 17

Issue (12) : 1913-1924 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-023-2350-8

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Design and mechanism insight on SiC quantum dots sensitized inverse opal TiO₂ with superior photocatalytic activities under sunlight

Yingchao He¹, Qiong Sun¹(

), Likun Sun¹, Zhixing Gan², Liyan Yu¹(

), Lifeng Dong^1,³(

)

¹. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China
². Center for Future Optoelectronic Functional Materials, School of Computer and Electronic Information, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China
³. Department of Physics, Hamline University, St. Paul, MN 55104, USA

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Abstract

The combination of SiC quantum dots sensitized inverse opal TiO₂ photocatalyst is designed in this work and then applied in wastewater purification under simulated sunlight. From various spectroscopic techniques, it is found that electrons transfer directionally from SiC quantum dots to inverse opal TiO₂, and the energy difference between their conduction/valence bands can reduce the recombination rate of photogenerated carriers and provide a pathway with low interfacial resistance for charge transfer inside the composite. As a result, a typical type-II mechanism is proved to dominate the photoinduced charge transfer process. Meanwhile, the composite achieves excellent photocatalytic performances (the highest apparent kinetic constant of 0.037 min^–1), which is 6.2 times (0.006 min^–1) and 2.1 times (0.018 min^–1) of the bare inverse opal TiO₂ and commercial P25 photocatalysts. Therefore, the stability and non-toxicity of SiC quantum dots sensitized inverse opal TiO₂ composite enables it with great potential in practical photocatalytic applications.

Keywords inverse opal TiO₂ silicon carbide quantum dots quantum dot sensitized photocatalyst type-II charge transfer route

Corresponding Author(s): Qiong Sun,Liyan Yu,Lifeng Dong

Online First Date: 11 September 2023 Issue Date: 30 November 2023

Cite this article:

Yingchao He,Qiong Sun,Likun Sun, et al. Design and mechanism insight on SiC quantum dots sensitized inverse opal TiO₂ with superior photocatalytic activities under sunlight[J]. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng., 2023, 17(12): 1913-1924.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fcse/EN/10.1007/s11705-023-2350-8
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fcse/EN/Y2023/V17/I12/1913

Scheme1 The preparation process of SiC QDs-IO TiO₂.

Fig.1 XRD patterns of IO TiO₂ and SiC QDs-IO TiO₂.

Fig.2 SEM images of (a) OCT, (b) IO TiO₂, and (c) SiC QDs-IO TiO₂; secondary electron image of (d) SiC QDs-IO TiO₂ and corresponding EDS elemental mapping of (e) Ti, (f) O, (g) Si, and (h) C; TEM images of (i) SiC QDs and (j, k) SiC QDs-IO TiO₂.

Fig.3 (a) The survey XPS spectra of SiC QDs, IO TiO₂ and SiC QDs-IO TiO₂; (b) XPS spectra of Ti 2p in IO TiO₂ and SiC QDs-IO TiO₂; (c) XPS spectra of Si 2p in SiC QDs and SiC QDs-IO TiO₂.

Fig.4 (a) UV-Vis absorption spectra and (b) (αhν)² versus hν plots of SiC, IO TiO₂ and SiC QDs-IO TiO₂; (c) photoluminescence (PL) spectra of IO TiO₂ and SiC QDs-IO TiO₂.

Fig.5 MS plots of (a) IO TiO₂ and (b) SiC QDs-IO TiO₂ tested at different frequencies.

Fig.6 (a) UV-Vis absorption spectra of RhB remaining in the filtrate at different reaction time; (b) the degradation curves (including dark process) of RhB with IO TiO₂ and SiC QDs-IO TiO₂ (The inset is the fitting plot of the quasi-first order kinetic model of –ln(C/C₀) versus reaction time); (c) histogram of k_app of photocatalytic degradation of RhB with no catalyst, SiC QDs, IO TiO₂, commercial P25 and SiC QDs-IO TiO₂; (d) histogram of k_app of x-SiC QDs-IO TiO₂ with different x values (x = 0, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 mL).

Fig.7 The histogram of k_app values calculated from the photocatalytic degradation by TiO₂ and SiC QDs-IO TiO₂ with different parameters. (a) Different pH values (3, 5, 9 and 11), (b) different filters (550 nm, AM1.5 filters and no filter) and (c) different dyes (MO (methyl orange), MB (methylene blue), RhB and X3B (reactive brilliant red)).

Fig.8 Cyclic photocatalytic degradation curves of RhB by SiC QDs-IO TiO₂.

Fig.9 (a) The transient current density plots of TiO₂ and SiC QDs-IO TiO₂ under light on/off; (b) the Nyquist plots of TiO₂ and SiC QDs-IO TiO₂ (The insets are the related equivalent circuit and zoomed-in horizontal intercepts).

Fig.10 (a) The histogram of k_app values calculated from the photocatalytic degradations by TiO₂ and SiC QDs-IO TiO₂ with different quenching agents (no quencher, IPA, EDTA-2Na and BZQ); (b) the photo induced charge transfer process in SiC QDs-IO TiO₂.

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