A Facile and Simple Strategy for the Synthesis of Label Free Carbon Quantum Dots from the latex of Euphorbia milii and Its Peroxidase-Mimic Activity for the Naked Eye Detection of Glutathione in a Human Blood Serum

Herein a green synthetic route has been developed for the synthesis of water-soluble CQDs by facile single-step hydrothermal treatment of latexes of E. milii plant for the first time. This methodology is zero-cost; uses ultrapure water as a green solvent; does not use strong concentrated acid; and avoids the use of post surface passivating agents. The as-prepared CQDs exhibited excellent optical properties, including high QY up to 39.2%, resistance to high salt strength, and long time photostability. Furthermore, the as-prepared CQDs served as an intrinsic peroxidase-mimic activity to catalyze the chromogenic substrate 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) associated with H2O2, which resulted into a blue-colored reaction with a characteristic absorbance peak at 652 nm. Afterward, the proposed TMB-based oxidation system act as a probe for the detection of GSH and offers the high selectivity relative to the different amino acids and various other interfering agents which can be easily seen with naked eye. The limit of detection (LOD) was found to be 5.3 nM in a linear range 0.02 to 0.1 μM of GSH concentration which showed to be superior under the optimal condition as compared with another probe. To demonstrate the practical feasibility for the GSH detection, the present system was successfully applied on human blood serums with good recovery.