Transformation of medical plastic waste to valuable carbon dots: A sustainable recycling of medical waste to efficient fluorescent marker

The dumped medical waste including disposable syringes, gloves and face masks is one of the primary responsible factors causing environmental threats and escalating landfills and CO2 discharges. Thus transforming these medical wastes into worthy carbon-based nanomaterials has offered an effective option for sustainable recycling of medical waste to efficient fluorescent markers. The current work utilizes disposable syringes, gloves and face masks as precursor sources to produce three different types of carbon dots (CDs) by using a simple heating method. The prepared CDs from three different sources have displayed considerable variations in the optical and luminescence properties of CDs. The supremacy of the prepared particles on biocompatibility parameters and the relationships between precursor source and concentration of formed CDs are also discussed via studying the antioxidant and seed germination assay. The outlook of controllable up cycled medical waste derived CDs has further been tested to develop selective and sensitive turn-off sensor for the detection of iron (Fe3+) ions. The corresponding quenching behavior in the presence of Fe3+ ions has further been explored by carrying out the optical and emission as a function of concentration and interference studies. The linear ranges for Fe3+ detection were 50 mu M to 30 nM with a limit of detection down to 0.80 nM, 0.42 nM and 0.29 nM for F@CDs, S@CDs and G@CDs generated from face masks, syringes and gloves respectively. This current work presents an effective alternative to the discovery of efficient methodologies for converting disposable medical waste for environmental remediation applications and progressive conclusions for accomplishing lucrative means to manage medical waste to value added products