In-situ Synthesis of Carbon Dot at Cellulose Nanofiber for Durable Water Treatment Membrane with High Selectivity

Abstract In this work, carbon dot (CD) was in-situ synthesized and attached to cellulose nanofiber (CNF) via hydrothermal process. The in-situ synthesized CD uniformly enveloped on the CNF surface by means of amide bonding, without significant changes of the chemical structure of CNF. The prepared CD@CNF composite showed rough and bumpy morphology. The attached CD increased the interaction between the fibers and enhanced the thermal stability and the dimensional stability in aqueous solution. CD@CNF showed excellent performance as a dye-rejection membrane with high-water flux (∼32 LMH bar-1) and high rejection rate (∼99.8%), as well as the selective removal of cationic dye. This study suggests the novel synthesizing method of durable CNF membrane by envelopment of CD for effective water treatment.