Synthesis of Green Iron Doped Carbon Dot Nanoparticles for Enhanced Solar Energy Harnessing

Solar energy is a sustainable, renewable and abundant power source which is the best energy source that can replace fossil fuels and lower the impact of pollution and global warming. Solar energy is stable, independent, and safe to wide extents. Present work investigates extraction of olive oil by pressing the fresh oils to pest and then extraction of the oil from it. The extracted oil is converted into carbon dot nanoparticles via hydrothermal technique and then doped with iron metal to have more efficient activities. The synthesized nanoparticles have been confirmed by full characterization. The desired synthesized carbon quantum dot nanoparticles were evaluated for their effectiveness as solar energy harnessing agents, over three consecutive days with nearly similar weather conditions. The products (carbon dot and iron doped carbon dot) showed more efficient solar-light absorption higher than olive oil itself and showed significant difference by p-value less than 0.0001, therefore, the products can be used for solar cell applications in future.