Structural and functional study of fluorescent carbon dots synthesized from lemon-peel via one step microwave irradiation method

Abstract

In the current research work, green synthesis of Carbon Dots (CDs) from lemon peels via one step microwave irradiation method has been reported. The synthesis technique for CDs is environmental friendly and economical. Green synthesized fluorescent CDs showed high quantum yield of 16.9% obtained from Photo-luminescent (PL) analysis. Structural and functional properties of CDs have been carefully studied with the help of different spectroscopic techniques such as UV-Vis, FT-IR, XPS and XRD. CDs were comprised of sun-flower like morphology with an average size of 20.5 nm. CDs were found to be amorphous in nature. The effect of pH and ionic strength on the synthesized CDs was also explored. All the studies indicate that green CDs can have potential applications in novel biological and opto-electronic devices.