Synthesis and Application of CCQDs as a Novel Type of Environmental-Friendly Scale Inhibitor.

Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) are promising nano-materials since it has smaller particle size, excellent biocompatibility and low toxicity. However, no one has found their high scale inhibition performance so far. In this paper, a new kind of green scale inhibitor, carboxyl carbon quantum dots (CCQDs), were synthesized through a simple method of thermal decomposition of citric acid. The as-prepared CCQDs have excellent scale inhibition performance for CaSO4 and BaSO4. With static test of scale inhibition at temperature of 0～80 ℃, the anti-scaling efficiency can reach 100% with low additions of CCQDs.