Large scale electrochemical synthesis of high quality carbon nanodots and their photocatalytic property

High quality carbon nanodots (C-dots) with high purity were synthesized through a mild, one-step electrochemical approach, without the assistance of any chemicals but only pure water. This high productivity method makes the synthetic process of C-dots synthesis both economical as well as environment-friendly. The as prepared C-dots are predominantly multi-layer graphene oxide, with luminescence and high up-conversion photoluminescence (emission of light at shorter wavelengths than the excitation wavelength). Meanwhile, C-dots showed peroxidise mimetic function and visible-light-sensitive photocatalytic activity for methyl orange degradation. In addition, a novel photocatalyst (TiO 2 /C-dots) was obtained by combining C-dots with TiO 2 through an easy hydrothermal method. Remarkably, TiO 2 /C-dots exhibited an excellent visible-light photocatalytic activity. Carbon nanodots with high purity were synthesized through a one-step electrochemical approach with pure water used as the electrolyte.