Mustard seeds derived fluorescent carbon quantum dots and their peroxidase-like activity for colorimetric detection of H 2 O 2 and ascorbic acid in a real sample.

Herein, we were synthesized fluorescent carbon quantum dots via facile one-step hydrothermal treatment of mustard seeds (M-CQDs). It showed excellent optical property with fluorescent quantum yield 4.6%. The as-prepared M-CQDs exhibited peroxidase-like mimetic activity and catalyzed the oxidation of chromogenic substrate 3,3‘,5,5‘-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) in the presence of H2O2 to produce a blue color reaction mixture with the prominent peak at 652 nm. Furthermore, the peroxidase-like catalytic performance of M-CQDs followed the steady-state kinetics behavior and exhibited similar catalytic activity as that of natural enzyme Horseradish peroxidase (HRP). In addition to this, the double reciprocal plot showed a parallel line which suggested the occurrence of Ping-Pong type of mechanism. The H2O2 dependent oxidation of TMB was helpful for the colorimetric detection of H2O2 in the linear range of 0.02–0.20 mM with the limit of detection (LOD) of 0.015 mM. Interestingly, the oxidized TMB (ox-TMB) was further reduced to native TMB by the reducing agent ascorbic acid. Hence M-CQDs showed its potential towards the selective and sensitive detection of ascorbic acid in the linear range of 10–70 μM having a correlation coefficient of 0.998 with LOD of 3.26 μM. The practical feasibility of the proposed detection method of AA was also investigated in common fresh fruits.