Brightly Fluorescent Zinc-Doped Red-Emitting Carbon Dots for the Sunlight-Induced Photoreduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III)

摘要

The present finding deals with a simple and low-cost fabrication of surface-passivated, brightly fluorescent zinc-oxide-decorated, red-emitting excitation-independent ultrafluorescent CDs, denoted as “C_(ZnO)-Dots”. Surface doping of zinc oxide significantly improved the quantum yield by up to ～72%, and these brightly fluorescent red-emitting C_(ZnO)-Dots have been employed for the aqueous-phase photoreduction of 100 ppm hexavalent chromium(VI) to trivalent chromium(III) under the influence of sunlight irradiation. The overall utility of the prepared C_(ZnO)-Dots can be ascertained by their recyclability over seven cycles.