Biomass derived carbon dots for enhanced wastewater remediation: ANN-optimized synthesis and cellular imaging applications

Abstract

Water pollution is a significant problem in today’s modern world, with dye molecules being the most challenging pollutants to eliminate. Carbon dots (CDs) have demonstrated high efficacy in water and wastewater treatment. This research aimed to develop CDs using banana peel as a carbon precursor through a facile hydrothermal method. These CDs were utilized to eliminate methylene blue (MB) dye. The CDs exhibited blue fluorescence with an improved quantum yield (QY) of up to 19 %. They showed an adsorption efficiency of 71.942 mg g−1, with maximum adsorption occurring within a pH range from 2 to 10. The adsorption kinetic data were well described by the pseudo-second-order and Freundlich isotherm models. Thermodynamic studies revealed that the adsorption process was spontaneous and exothermic. Moreover, the CDs demonstrated excellent re-usability potential over five successive cycles of adsorption. Additionally, a prediction study was performed using an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to forecast the adsorption of dye by CDs. The CDs were further investigated for cytotoxic properties and cellular internalization in breast cancer cells (MCF-7). The findings indicated that cellular viability significantly decreased with increasing dosage, reaching 50 % (IC50) at a concentration of 128 μg mL−1. Successful internalization of CDs by cancer cells with blue emission suggests their potential in biomedical applications. Thus, the synthesized nanomaterial is highly promising for both bio-sensing applications and wastewater treatment.