Synthesis of carbon nanodots from horse chestnut by direct microwave pyrolysis and spectrofluorimetric determination of the toxic food colour tartrazine

In this study, carbon nanodots (CND) were synthesized using three different methods with horse chestnut as carbon source. Their structural characterization and chemical structure were characterized and their ability to be used in the determination of food dyes was investigated using fluorescence spectroscopy. The obtained CNDs exhibited strong fluorescence emissions in the range 432 – 437 under 360 nm excitation wavelength. The CNDs obtained by all three methods were used for the spectrofluorometric determination of tartrazine, a toxic food coloring. The accuracy of the proposed method was demonstrated by addition-recovery studies on real food samples. % recoveries were found to be between 98.8 and 100.1. The precision of the method was determined by inter-day and intra-day repeat determinations. The precision was found to be between 0.6 – 2.3 as % relative standard deviation (%RSD). The limit of detection (LOD) was found to be 0.02 mg/L. The proposed new method for the determination of tartrazine has important advantages over the known tartrazine determination methods in the literature as it is more environmentally, friendly, simpler, faster, and more economical.