One Step Synthesis of Fluorescent Carbon Dots and its Potential Application in pH Detection, Food Additives and Free Radical Scavenging

Lemon yellow is a kind of common food additive. Excessive use of food additives and metabolized free radicals in blood may bring potential harm to human health. In this study, we synthesized a kind of green luminescent fluorescent carbon dots by one-step method, which can effectively detect lemon yellow and this kind of material is sensitive to pH. More importantly, this material can effectively remove superoxide anion and hydroxyl radical. The synthesis method is simple and some unique functions will make this material have greater potential applications.