Eco-friendly synthesis of Carbon Dots using oil palm petioles treated with lemon juice for Cu2+ detection in water samples

Generally, alteration or modification attempts on carbon nanoparticles or Carbon Dots (CDs) by acid treatment are detrimental to the nature as the disposal of acid can contribute to soil and water pollution. Through this work, an alternative material to treat the carbon precursor for the production of CDs is able to be proposed. It has successfully synthesized two fresh oil palm petioles derived CDs (OPP-CDs) through an easy and low temperature condition of hydrothermal method. The physical and optical properties of the untreated and treated OPPCDs are determined from the characterization analyses. The results reported that both of OPP-CDs displayed size below than 10 nm with a moderate particles dispersion, good water solubility and stability due to the presence of functional groups such as hydroxyl and carboxyl. The optical properties showed that they exhibited a bright yellow fluorescence after being exposed under the Ultravioletvisible (UV-Vis) light and obtained a maximum light emission at 470 nm when being excited at 370 nm. Furthermore, the quantum yield (QY) acquired by untreated and treated OPP-CDs was 8 % and 13.6 % respectively. The values are comparable with other studies that were utilizing stronger chemicals. Apart from that, the final outcome disclosed that the proposed treated OPP-CDs was sensitive to Cu2+ ions and through a plotted calibration curve, the R2 value obtained was 0.9906. This study could be the first demonstration of using natural citric acid from lemon juice to treat OPP waste as the carbon precursor for production of CDs. In the nutshell, the proposed OPP-CDs are considered safer once being exposed to the environment compared to the conventional CDs. Hence, they are well needed to assist in the broad science applications.

Text 121196.pdf Download (1MB) Official URL or Download Paper: http://ethesis.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/18551

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