Synthesis and characterisation of green luminescent carbon dots from guava leaf extract

Abstract

Carbon Dots (C-Dots) are carbon nanoparticles of very small size which has been a subject of intense study in the recent years due to their interesting properties and applications. This work reports green synthesis of C-Dots using guava leaf extract by a cost effective hydrothermal method with water and ethanol as solvents. TEM measurements revealed that the particles are below 10 nm in size. The optical properties of C-dots synthesized were characterised by absorbance and photoluminescence measurements. It was found that the C-dots show green emission and good stability to be used for various sensing and energy conversion applications. The carbon dot incorporated titanium dioxide showed good photocatalytic ability to degrade methylene blue (MB) dye similar to metal–semiconductor nanocomposites paving way for cost-effective nanomaterials for water purification.