Upcycling of plastic waste into fluorescent carbon dots: An environmentally viable transformation to biocompatible C-dots with potential prospective in analytical applications

Abstract The profitable impact on ecological system made the upcycling of plastic waste as one of the captivating issues in scientific world. The current work highlights the sustainable approach to transform the plastic waste comprises of bottles, used cups and polyethylene bags via simple heating to fluorescent carbon dots (C-dots). The obtained C-dots have displayed the absorption peaks around at 260 nm with size ranging between 5 and 30 nm. The upcycling has produced the structural changes in plastic waste and affected the optical properties of C-dots. The three types of used plastic waste as precursor have displayed excellent emission properties with peak positioned around 422 nm and quantum yield (QY) values ∼62, 65 and 64% for C-dots generated from plastic polybags, cups and bottles (P-CDs, C-CDs and B-CDs) respectively. The toxicity profiling of C-dots has been successfully tested by employing multi-assay biocompatible activities i.e. antibacterial and antifungal activities. The potential prospective of C-dots derived from plastic waste have further been explored in analytical applications involving selective copper metal ion sensing in aqueous media. The outcomes of the current studies have highlighted the potential accomplishment in preserving environment fate and giving response towards the budding social hitch of plastic waste.