In this study, a simple and green hydrothermal treatment was performed to prepare nitrogen-doped carbon dots (NCDs) from Averrhoa carambola (AC) fruit extract as a carbon precursor and L-arginine (Arg) as a nitrogen dopant. The AC-NCDs were characterized by UV light, fluorescence spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, FTIR spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, UV-vis spectroscopy, and zeta potential analyzer. The AC-NCDs were spherical and the average diameter was estimated to be 6.67 nm. The AC-NCDs exhibited the maximum emission intensity at 446 nm with 360 nm excitation wavelength. The fluorescence quenching behavior of AC-NCDs after interacting with methyl orange (MO) dye was studied. The interaction of AC-NCDs and MO was achieved within 3 min and the fluorescence quenching was maintained to a fixed value even after 30 min. The linearity was obtained in the range of 1 to 25 μM MO with a 0.30 μM detection limit. Furthermore, the pH values affected the quenching behavior of the AC-NCDs/MO system where the interaction mechanisms were driven by the electrostatic interaction, π-π interaction, inner filter effect, and energy transfer. The pH 5 maintained higher quenching efficiency while other pH values slightly decreased the quenching efficiency. Incoming applications, the AC-NCDs can be used in various important fields, especially for environmental protection.
Keywords: Averrhoa carambola; L-arginine; amino acid; fluorescent probe; fruit extract; hydrothermal; methyl orange; nitrogen-doped carbon dots.