S,Cl-doped-C-dots and S-g-C3N4 heterojunction for enhanced photocatalytic remediation of dye-polluted wastewater

In the current study, sulfur-doped graphitic carbon nitride (S-g-C3N4) fabricated from thiourea and green-synthesized S,Cl-doped carbon dots (S,Cl–C-dots) from rotten garlic (Allium sativum) are hydrothermally processed to fabricate their composite, i.e., S,Cl–C-dots/S-g-C3N4 heterojunction to decontaminate methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (RhB) dyes under the influence of UV-irradiations. Several techniques, such as XRD, UV–visible, HR-TEM, Raman spectroscopy, FT-IR, XPS, and photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL), have been employed to examine the chemical, optical, electronic, surface morphology, and photocatalytic characteristics of resultant nanomaterials (NMs). The resultant S,Cl–C-dots are exceptionally crystalline, nearly spherical with particle diameters ranging from 2.53 to 15.97 nm. The produced NMs are optimized for remediation of dye-contaminated wastewater. The resulting heterojunction, i.e., S,Cl–C-dots/S-g-C3N4 exhibited significantly greater photocatalytic efficiency as compared to its constituents nanostructures. Under the optimized condition, composite showed excellent photocatalytic degradation of MB (99.18