Abstract
Although the luminescent properties of carbon dots (CDs) already have been modulated by changing different synthetic parameters, the effect of the reaction time and temperature is still rarely explored. In this work, a facile and eco-friendly synthesis of CDs by hydrothermal method using red propolis wax as a source of carbon was performed in times of 6 (CD6) and 24 h (CD24) and thermally treated. The produced CDs exhibit a size around 2–5 nm, a uniform morphology, and an intense blue light photoluminescence emission under UV irradiation. The photoluminescent properties of CDs display both excitation-dependent/independent emission that are affected by the different reaction times tested in the synthesis. The results showed that the degree of oxidation/defects decreases as the particle size increases providing an unusual emission behavior independent of the excitation with the time increase from 6 to 24 h. In addition, the heat treatment makes the CD6 sample emit independent of the excitation. Moreover, it is noteworthy that to the best of our knowledge, red proprolis wax has not been used as a precursor in the synthesis of CDs and no study has reported changes in dependent/independent emission of CDs by using different reaction times and thermal treatments.
Graphic Abstract
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahangari Z, Naseri M, Vatandoost F (2018) Propolis: chemical composition and its applications in endodontics, Iran. Endod J 13:285–292. https://doi.org/10.22037/iej.v13i3.20994
Ahirwar S, Mallick S, Bahadur D (2017) Electrochemical method to prepare graphene quantum dots and graphene oxide quantum dots. ACS Omega 2:8343–8353. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.7b01539
Arumugam N, Kim J (2018) Synthesis of carbon quantum dots from broccoli and their ability to detect silver ions. Mater Lett 219:37–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2018.02.043
Barati A, Shamsipur M, Abdollahi H (2016) Carbon dots with strong excitation-dependent fluorescence changes towards pH. Application as nanosensors for a broad range of pH. Anal Chim Acta 931:25–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aca.2016.05.011
Ccana-Ccapatinta GV, Mejía JAA, Tanimoto MH, Groppo M, de Carvalho JCAS, Bastos JK (2020) Dalbergia ecastaphyllum (L.) Taub. and Symphonia globulifera L.f.: the botanical sources of isoflavonoids and benzophenones in Brazilian red propolis. Molecules 25:2060. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25092060
Chen S, Yu Y-L, Wang J-H (2018a) Inner filter effect-based fluorescent sensing systems: a review. Anal Chim Acta 999:13–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aca.2017.10.026
Chen L, Zhang Y, Duan B, Gu Z, Guo Y, Wang H, Duan C (2018b) Carbon dots prepared in different solvents with controllable structures: optical properties, cellular imaging and photocatalysis. New J Chem 42:1690–1697. https://doi.org/10.1039/c7nj03621c
De B, Karak N (2013) A green and facile approach for the synthesis of water soluble fluorescent carbon dots from banana juice. RSC Adv 3:8286–8290. https://doi.org/10.1039/c3ra00088e
Ding H, Yu SB, Wei JS, Xiong HM (2016) Full-color light-emitting carbon dots with a surface-state-controlled luminescence mechanism. ACS Nano 10:484–491. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.5b05406
do Nascimento TG, da Silva PF, Azevedo LF, da Rocha LG, de Moraes Porto ICC, Moura TFAL, Basílio-Júnior ID, Grillo LAM, Dornelas CB, da Fonseca EJS, de Jesus Oliveira E, Zhang AT, Watson DG (2016) Polymeric nanoparticles of Brazilian red propolis extract: preparation, characterization, antioxidant and leishmanicidal activity. Nanoscale Res Lett 11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11671-016-1517-3
Gedda G, Lee CY, Lin YC, Wu HF (2016) Green synthesis of carbon dots from prawn shells for highly selective and sensitive detection of copper ions. Sensors Actuators B Chem 224:396–403. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2015.09.065
Joseph J, Anappara AA (2016) White light emission of carbon dots by creating different emissive traps. J Lumin 178:128–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlumin.2016.05.051
Kaur J, Sharma S, Mehta SK, Kansal SK (2020) Highly photoluminescent and pH sensitive nitrogen doped carbon dots (NCDs) as a fluorescent sensor for the efficient detection of Cr (VI) ions in aqueous media. Spectrochim Acta - Part A Mol Biomol Spectrosc 227:117572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.saa.2019.117572
Laís LF, de Teles da Silva LVA, do Nascimento TG, de Almeida LM, Calumby RJN, Nunes ÁM, de Magalhães Oliveira LMT, da Silva Fonseca EJ (2020) Antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of red propolis embedded mesoporous silica nanoparticles. Drug Dev. Ind. Pharm 46:1199–1208. https://doi.org/10.1080/03639045.2020.1782423
Li X, Zhang S, Kulinich SA, Liu Y, Zeng H (2014) Engineering surface states of carbon dots to achieve controllable luminescence for solid-luminescent composites and sensitive Be2+ detection. Sci Rep 4:1–8. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep04976
Li X, Zhao Z, Pan C (2016) Ionic liquid-assisted electrochemical exfoliation of carbon dots of different size for fluorescent imaging of bacteria by tuning the water fraction in electrolyte. Microchim Acta 183:2525–2532. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-016-1877-5
Lu S, Guo S, Xu P, Li X, Zhao Y, Gu W, Xue M (2016) Hydrothermal synthesis of nitrogen-doped carbon dots with real-time live-cell imaging and blood-brain barrier penetration capabilities. Int J Nanomedicine 11:6325–6336. https://doi.org/10.2147/IJN.S119252
Mansur HS (2010) Quantum dots and nanocomposites. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Nanomedicine Nanobiotechnology 2:113–129. https://doi.org/10.1002/wnan.78
Meng W, Bai X, Wang B, Liu Z, Lu S, Yang B (2019) Biomass-derived carbon dots and their applications. Energy Environ Mater 2:172–192. https://doi.org/10.1002/eem2.12038
Negri G, Marcucci MC, Salatino A, Salatino MLF (2000) Comb and propolis waxes from Brazil (States of São Paulo and Paraná). J Braz Chem Soc 11:453–457. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0103-50532000000500004
Papaioannou N, Titirici MM, Sapelkin A (2019) Investigating the effect of reaction time on carbon dot formation, structure, and optical properties. ACS Omega 4:21658–21665. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.9b01798
Reckmeier CJ, Wang Y, Zboril R, Rogach AL (2016) Influence of doping and temperature on solvatochromic shifts in optical spectra of carbon dots. J Phys Chem C 120:10591–10604. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.5b12294
Romero V, Vila V, de la Calle I, Lavilla I, Bendicho C (2019) Turn–on fluorescent sensor for the detection of periodate anion following photochemical synthesis of nitrogen and sulphur co–doped carbon dots from vegetables. Sensors Actuators B Chem 280:290–297. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2018.10.064
Sharma V, Tiwari P, Mobin SM (2017) Sustainable carbon-dots: recent advances in green carbon dots for sensing and bioimaging. J Mater Chem B 5:8904–8924. https://doi.org/10.1039/c7tb02484c
Sonsin AF, Nascimento SMS, Albuquerque IMB, Silva ECO, Rocha JCA, Oliveira RS, Barbosa CDAES, Souza ST, Fonseca EJS (2021) Temperature-dependence on the optical properties of chitosan carbon dots in the solid state. RSC Adv 11:2767–2773. https://doi.org/10.1039/D0RA07779H
Srivastava I, Misra SK, Tripathi I, Schwartz-Duval A, Pan D (2018) In situ time-dependent and progressive oxidation of reduced state functionalities at the nanoscale of carbon nanoparticles for polarity-driven multiscale near-infrared imaging. Adv Biosyst 2:1–11. https://doi.org/10.1002/adbi.201800009
Sun D, Ban R, Zhang PH, Wu GH, Zhang JR, Zhu JJ (2013a) Hair fiber as a precursor for synthesizing of sulfur- and nitrogen-co-doped carbon dots with tunable luminescence properties. Carbon N Y 64:424–434. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2013.07.095
Sun H, Gao N, Wu L, Ren J, Wei W, Qu X (2013b) Highly photoluminescent amino-functionalized graphene quantum dots used for sensing copper ions. Chem Eur J 19:13362–13368. https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201302268
Tammina SK, Yang D, Li X, Koppala S, Yang Y (2019) High photoluminescent nitrogen and zinc doped carbon dots for sensing Fe3+ ions and temperature. Spectrochim Acta - Part A Mol Biomol Spectrosc 222:117141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.saa.2019.117141
Taspika M, Permatasari FA, Nuryadin BW, Mayangsari TR, Aimon AH, Iskandar F (2019) Simultaneous ultraviolet and first near-infrared window absorption of luminescent carbon dots/PVA composite film. RSC Adv 9:7375–7381. https://doi.org/10.1039/C8RA09742A
Wang T, Wang A, Wang R, Liu Z, Sun Y, Shan G, Chen Y, Liu Y (2019) Carbon dots with molecular fluorescence and their application as a “turn-off” fluorescent probe for ferricyanide detection. Sci Rep 9:1–9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-47168-7
Wei Z, Wang B, Liu Y, Liu Z, Zhang H, Zhang S, Chang J, Lu S (2019) Green synthesis of nitrogen and sulfur co-doped carbon dots from Allium fistulosum for cell imaging. New J Chem 43:718–723. https://doi.org/10.1039/c8nj05783d
Xu-Cheng F, Xuan-Hua L, Jin JZ, Zhang J, Wei G (2018) Facile synthesis of bagasse waste derived carbon dots for trace mercury detection. Mater Res Express 5. https://doi.org/10.1088/2053-1591/aaccb7.
Zhang R, Chen W (2014) Biosensors and bioelectronics nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots: facile synthesis and application as a “turn-off” fluorescent probe for detection of Hg2+ ions. Biosens Bioelectron 55:83–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2013.11.074
Zhao X, Zhang J, Shi L, Xian M, Dong C, Shuang S (2017) Folic acid-conjugated carbon dots as green fluorescent probes based on cellular targeting imaging for recognizing cancer cells. RSC Adv 7:42159–42167. https://doi.org/10.1039/c7ra07002k
Zhou W, Dong S, Lin Y, Lu C (2017) Insights into the role of nanostructure in the sensing properties of carbon nanodots for improved sensitivity to reactive oxygen species in living cells. Chem Commun 53:2122–2125. https://doi.org/10.1039/c7cc00169j
Zhu B, Sun S, Wang Y, Deng S, Qian G, Wang M, Hu A (2013) Preparation of carbon nanodots from single chain polymeric nanoparticles and theoretical investigation of the photoluminescence mechanism. J Mater Chem C 1:580–586. https://doi.org/10.1039/c2tc00140c
Acknowledgements
We thank Professor PhD Renato V. Gonçalves of the Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Advanced Ceramics (NaCa) for the XPS analysis.
Funding
This study received funding from the Brazilian agencies Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) (grants 429.027/2018-4), the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal e Nível Superior (CAPES) and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Alagoas (FAPEAL), and by the Brazilian Nanocarbon Institute of Science and Technology (INCT-Nanocarbono).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rodrigues, L.S., Sonsin, A.F., Barbosa, C.D.E.S. et al. An eco-friendly green and facile synthesis of carbon dots from red propolis wax with photoluminescence dependent of reaction time and thermal treatment in solid state. J Nanopart Res 23, 262 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-021-05362-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-021-05362-7