Preparation of C60 Fullerene Nanowhisker--CuS Nanoparticle Composites and Photocatalyst for Rhodamine B Degradation under Blue Light Emitting Diode Irradiation.

The liquid-liquid interfacial precipitation (LLIP) approach was used to synthesize the C60 fullerene nanowhisker (FNW)-CuS nanoparticle composites utilizing a CuS nanoparticle solution, C60-saturated toluene, and isopropyl alcohol (IPA). Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to characterize the product of C60 FNW-CuS nanoparticle composites. These were also utilized to photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) under blue light emitting diode (LED) irradiation at 450 nm. Also, UV-vis spectroscopy was used to confirm the photocatalytic degradation activity of RhB over the C60 FNW-CuS nanoparticle composites. The percentage of photocatalytic degradation of RhB was shown to be 95.148%. The kinetics study for photocatalytic degradation of RhB using C60 FNW-CuS nanoparticle composites followed a pseudo-first-order reaction rate law. C60 FNW-CuS nanoparticle composites as photocatalyst have a rate constant of 4.82x10-2 min-1 at 25 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]