Instant removal of methylene blue using water-soluble non-cadmium based quantum dots

摘要

Contamination of water sources by dye and colourant industries has been a serious issue that could lead to a water crisis. Herein, we report a novel method for instant removal of methylene blue (MB) from the aqueous solution using water-soluble AgInS2-ZnS (AIS-ZnS) quantum dots (QDs) as coagulant material. Briefly, AIS-ZnS QDs were synthesized in an aqueous medium using glutathione and sodium citrate as dual stabilizing agents. The as-synthesized AIS-ZnS QDs was simply mixed with MB solution and immediately filtered with a 20 nm filter to obtain clear water with very low conductivity. The removal of MB by coagulation with AIS-ZnS QDs followed by filtration was efficiently high up to 99.3%. This result shows AIS-ZnS QDs as an excellent candidate for the rapid removal of dyes.