Studies of photocatalytic and optoelectronic properties of microwave synthesized and polyethyleneimine stabilized carbon quantum dots

Abstract The paucity of fresh drinking water is one of the chief issues of the twenty-first century. This has driven the advancement of various procedures for water refinement, for example, wastewater treatment. Organic coloring agents like Rhodamine-B (RhB) are quite possibly the foremost troublesome substances to manage. RhB is among the most significantly used coloring agents, which is hard to manage using conventional methodologies. Here, we report the photocatalytic degradation of RhB using microwave synthesized carbon quantum dots (CQDs). UV–vis absorption study and fluorescence study were used to confirm the formation of CQDs. The transmission electron microscope studies confirmed the small size of about 2 nm of spherical shaped CQDs. Degradation of RhB was studied under dark, under visible, and UV light irradiation. The highest degradation of 99.7% was obtained under UV- light irradiation in 150 min.