Study on synthesis of carbon dots using carbon soot and activated charcoal / Zaty Nabila Mohamad Sulaiman

Nanoparticles have gained huge attention in many application fields. The current type of nanoparticles used is expensive such as gold nanoparticles. Carbon based materials are more preferable than gold in synthesizing the nanoparticles because it is cheap with unlimited resources. Fluorescent carbon nanoparticles were synthesized via nitric acid oxidation from two different sources which were from carbon soot and activated charcoal. The nitric acid oxidation process made the carbon molecules became smaller and more water soluble. The incorporation of nitrogen and oxygen into carbon molecules after the reflux process resulted in light emitting property of carbon nanoparticles. These carbon nanoparticles showed green fluorescence under UV exposure. The light emitted by these carbon nanoparticles depends on the wavelength of light used for excitation. The samples were analysed using ultraviolet-visible absorption and fluorescence intensity to prove that the carbon nanoparticles were successfully synthesized in this study. The consistent results with the published literature suggested that the samples obtained in this experiment contains carbon nanoparticle.