Carbon dots from guar gum: Synthesis, characterization and preliminary study of carbon dots penetration into spinacia oleracea leaf cells

In the present work, Guar Gum (GG) has been used as precursor to prepare carbon dots (CD) via microwave assisted synthesis. The carbon dots, as synthesized, were characterized by various analytical techniques such as Fourier Transformation Infra-Red (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopic (TEM) analysis, UV-Vis spectroscopy, and Fluorescent Microscopy (FM) etc. The TEM analysis revealed that the particles had an average diameter of 7 nm. Zeta potential was found to be −3.65 mV, thus indicating presence of slight negatively charged surface. Finally, impregnation of C-Dot was studied in Spinacia oleracea leaf. It was observed that as the concentration of CDs solution increased, percent insertion (PI) also increased, but the time required for maximal insertion decreased with increasing concentrations of CDs in the feed solutions. In addition, number of CDs inserted decreased after attainment of maximum number. A fairly high concentration of CDs was observed in stomata, as viewed through fluorescence microscope. © 2018 American Scientific Publishers. All rights reserved.