Sustainable Carbon Dots Production from Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch for the Photodegradation of Methylene Blue

This paper presents a sustainable approach to synthesizing carbon dots (CDs) from biomass waste for the effective photocatalytic degradation of Methylene Blue (MB). CDs were successfully synthesized from Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) via a facile one-step hydrothermal treatment. The CDs exhibited spherical morphology with both amorphous and crystalline structures, characterized by XRD analysis. SEM-EDX analysis indicated the presence of carbon, oxygen, and potassium. FTIR spectroscopy identified the presence of hydroxyl, aromatic, carbonyl, and C-C functional groups. UV-vis spectroscopy revealed characteristic absorption bands in the UV region from 230 to 340 nm, while the solution exhibited a dark brown color under ambient light and green luminescence under UV excitation (365nm). The optimal degradation efficiency of 68.5% was achieved in 160 minutes at pH 10 with 20 mg/L CDs in a 10 mg/L MB solution. Kinetic analysis indicated that the degradation followed pseudo-first-order kinetics with a rate constant of 1.5 x10⁻³ min⁻¹. This research demonstrates a simple and sustainable method for synthesizing spherical, amorphous, and crystalline CDs from biomass waste, showcasing their potential in environmental remediation.