Visible light photocatalytic activity of Cu, N co-doped carbon dots/Ag3PO4 nanocomposites for neutral red under green LED radiation

[Display omitted] In current investigation, we synthesized a new Cu, N co-doped carbon dots/Ag3PO4 (Cu, N-CDs/Ag3PO4) nanocomposite by one-step thermolysis and precipitation method. In addition, we evaluated the activity of Ag3PO4 and Cu,N-CDs/Ag3PO4 nanomaterials in degrading an environmental pollutant called neutral red under visible radiations. Compared to the pure Ag3PO4, Cu, N-CDs/Ag3PO4 had shown high degradation efficiency by more than 25% and shown good recyclability. The synthesized nanocomposite was characterized by XRD, HRTEM, FT-IR, Raman and XPS techniques. The optical property of Cu, N-CDs/Ag3PO4 nanocomposite was examined with UV–vis DRS (Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy). And the excellent photocatalytic performance of this Cu, N-CDs system was ascribed to the increased conversion of ·O2− under visible light irradiations and effective separation of electron-hole pairs, results in inhibited photocorrosion of the system. Also, this nanocomposite could successfully degrade the neutral red dye (mention the concentration) about 95.5% under LED irradiations within 60 min.