Development of green photocatalyst using empty fruit bunches from Elaeis guineensis for methylene blue degradation

The application of transition metals for the photocatalytic degradation of pollutants is expensive and impractical due to health and safety concerns. Thus, nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dot (NCQDs) is studied in this work given their low toxicity, cost-effectiveness, and renewable feedstock. However, the performance study using NCQDs produced from empty fruit bunches (EFB) through a hydrothermal treatment is not detailed in previous works. This study aims to evaluate the effects of temperature, pH, NCQDs dosage, and UV-light irradiation time on the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue using the Taguchi optimization approach with 3-factor levels. Based on the study, an optimum operating condition at 62.5 °C of solution temperature, solution pH of 10.7, 13.4 ml of NCQDs dosage, and 322.7 min of irradiation duration has successfully achieved 95.75% of methylene blue degradation efficiency.