Construction of carbon nanodots/tungsten trioxide and their visible-light sensitive photocatalytic activity

• Facile preparation of carbon nanodots/WO3 nanocomposite with high photocatalytic activity were designed.
• A novel photocatalytic assay of degrading methylene blue by carbon nanodots/WO3 was performed.
• Carbon nanodots/WO3 showed excellent stability which could be recycled for the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue.

Herein we designed a simple and effective method for synthesizing carbon nanodots/tungsten trioxide nanocomposite with high photocatalytic activity. The as-prepared carbon nanodots/ tungsten trioxide has strong photoabsorption under visible light irradiation. Then, carbon nanodots/tungsten trioxide was successfully applied to the degradation of methylene blue. The photodegradation efficiency of methylene blue can be reached as high as 100% after 0.5 h visible light illumination. In addition, carbon nanodots/tungsten trioxide could also be used to degrade rhodamine B and methyl orange. Most importantly, the photocatalytic activity of carbon nanodots/tungsten trioxide did not exhibit obvious changes after five cycles. The results indicate that carbon nanodots/tungsten trioxide has potential applications in the degradation of organic pollutants in industrial waste water.

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