Carbon nanodots from used green tea biochar: antibacterial applications and antibiofilm carbon coatings

E. Elsa  Sharon; Jae-Wook  Oh; Judy  Gopal

doi:10.6180/jase.202509_28(9).0003

Carbon nanodots from used green tea biochar: antibacterial applications and antibiofilm carbon coatings

Material Engineering Chemistry / Biochemistry

E. Elsa Sharon¹, Jae-Wook Oh², and Judy Gopal³This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

¹Saveetha Medical College, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), Thandalam, Chennai- 602105, Tamil Nadu, India

²Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biotechnology, KIT, Konkuk University, 120 Neungdong-ro, , Gwangjin-gu, Seoul 05029, Republic of Korea

³Department of Research and Innovation, Saveetha School of Engineering, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), Thandalam, Chennai- 602105, Tamil Nadu, India

Received: July 25, 2023
Accepted: October 9, 2024
Publication Date: December 7, 2024

Copyright The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are cited.

Download Citation: ||https://doi.org/10.6180/jase.202509_28(9).0003

Green tea has been famous and well-known for various reasons, its value has been recognized from time immemorial for its bioactivity. Green tea leaves also come as handy green tea bags, usually green tea is extracted once in hot water and then the leaves are discarded. The present study reports the successful reuse of these used green tea leaves from tea bags for the synthesis of carbon nanodots. Used green tea leaves biochar was obtained by heat treatment in a muffle furnace and carbon nanodots were extracted from the biochar. The carbon nanodots were characterized to confirm their morphological and chemical characteristics. The antibacterial activity was tested against pathogenic coliforms as well as oral bacteria. The results indicated that the indigenously prepared carbon nanodots exhibited significant antibacterial activity. Carbon coatings were prepared from these used green tea biochar derived carbon nanodots using a simple dip coating method and their antibiofilm activity was demonstrated. For the first time, we report the successful synthesis of antibacterial carbon nanodots from used green tea biochar.

Keywords: used green tea leaves; carbon nanodots; antibacterial; antibiofilm

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