One Step Synthesis of Fe/N Co-Doped Carbon Nanoparticles for Photocatalysis

A one step method of synthesis of iron-nitrogen doped carbon nanoparticles (Fe/NCNPs) is developed by pyrolysis using citric acid and ammonium oxalate as carbon source and FeCl3 as iron source. The solution of as-prepared Fe/NCNPs emits blue fluorescent under 365 nm UV. As-prepared Fe/NCNPs are investigated by XRD, TEM, FTIR, FL and XPS. The result indicates that as-prepared Fe/NCNPs are well-dispersed with an average diameter of about 3 similar to 5 nm. Its fluorescence spectra show that the particles have excellent fluorescence performance, and with increasing excitation wavelength, the fluorescence spectra shift to longer wavelengths, which is multicolor. In addition, the solution of as-prepared Fe/NCNPs has good short wavelength optical emission with long wavelength visible and infrared light excitation, which is the up-converting function. When as-prepared Fe/NCNPs are applied to photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (20 mg.L-1) irradiated by visible light, when the H2O2 is absent, the decolorization rate is over 90% in 15 hours; when H2O2 is present as oxidant, the decolorization rate is over 97% in 15 min, revealing excellent photocatalytic activity. The redox reaction mechanism of the photocatalytic degradation is evaluated by electrochemical method, and the result is consistent with the theory.