A Sustainable Synthesis of functionalized Carbon Quantum Dots from Hair for the applications of Cytotoxicity study and In vitro bioimaging

Abstract A simple and low-cost approach for the sustainable synthesis of carbon quantum dots (CQDs) were developed by using hair as carbon source without using any chemicals. Interestingly, not only the carbon source of CQDs, the whole synthesis procedure is environmentally friendly, and the synthesized sustainable functionalized CQDs have shown many beneficial properties such as high fluorescence intensity, excellent photostability, and good water solubility. Sustainable functionalized CQDs which were firstly synthesized from hair by a microwave method. The functionalization agent used in sustainable functionalized CQDs synthesis was poly l-lysine (PLL) and characterized using UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, Fluorescence spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectroscopy, Transmission electron microscopy (TEM)technique. The synthesized sustainable functionalized CQDs emit blue fluorescence under UV light (at 365nm). A microwave oven (350 watts) was used to prepare sustainable CQDs within 5–7 second. As a bioimaging probe, the potential application of the prepared sustainable functionalized CQD was assessed by treating MCF7 Cells and L929 cell. The biological activity of as-prepared sustainable functionalized CQDs has been tested with respect to its inherent cytotoxicity, where the sustainable functionalized CQDs exhibited significant anti-cancer property against breast cancer cell lines in vitro application.