Diamond Thin Film as a Photocatalyst for Photodegradation of Dyes

Diamond is known as the hardest material with excellent properties including high thermal conductivity at ambient temperature. The ability of diamond to withstand high temperature allows the synthesis of doped diamond by introducing dopants into its structure. The introduced dopants are boron and nitrogen which act as either p-type or n-type, respectively. The doped diamond can act as a photocatalyst for the purpose of water treatment. In this study, different types of dopants introduced into the diamond lattice contributed to different photocatalytic activities. The characterization of Diamond Thin Film (DTF) was done using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and laser Raman spectrophotometer. Photocatalytic activities of DTF were investigated by degradation of methylene blue and methyl orange as models for the organic pollutants. The concentration of the organic pollutants degraded was analyzed using UV-Vis Spectrophotometer. As a result, n-type doped diamond showed better photocatalytic activities compared to p-type doped diamond with 725 mg/cm2 of methylene blue degraded over the period of 150 minutes.