Chicken bone wastes as precursor for C-dots in olive oil

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to synthesise and characterise carbon nanodots (C-dots) from chicken bone wastes in olive oil. The chicken bones were collected from the wastes of local chicken meat filleting shops, which were then cleaned, dried under the sun, heated in an oven at 250°C for 2 h, and ground into powder. One gram of the powder was dispersed into 10 ml of olive oil, which was then heated in a microwave for 5 min and filtered. For characterisation purposes, five drops of the solution were mixed with 8 ml of n-hexane. The carbonisation was indicated by the colour change of the solution after the microwave heating, i.e., from yellow (pure olive oil) to concentrated dark-brownish colour (C-dots solution). The characterisations were conducted using UVVis, photoluminescence (PL), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) to determine the optical properties of the C-dots, whereas the viscosity and the surface tension of pure olive oil and C-dots solution were also measured. The UV-Vis result showed two absorbance peaks of C-dots solution at 234 nm and 267 nm. The PL result showed green and red emissions at 499.57 nm and 673.52 nm, respectively. The FTIR result showed functional groups of C=C and C=O, which indicate the core and surface state of C-dots, respectively. The SEM result showed a surface morphology of C-dots aggregates in the structural form of homogeneous bulks. Finally, the C-dots solution had viscosity and surface tension, which were lower than those of pure olive oil so that the C-dots solution may be better absorbed by the body tissue for biomedical applications.