Multifunctional antibacterial enhanced amoxicillin carbon nanodots for the detection of Hg (II) and methanol in edible alcohol

Amoxicillin was used as the sole precursor to rapidly synthesize amoxicillin carbon nanodots via a one-step microwave method. The diameter of the amoxicillin carbon nanodots was concentrated at 1.8 ± 0.6 nm, with fluorescence excitation-dependent characteristics. After characterization, the carbon nanodots retained some of the amoxicillin structure, exhibiting low biological toxicity and good antibacterial activity. Due to the formation of the carbon dots structure, the hydrophilicity and water solubility of the amoxicillin carbon nanodots improved. An antibacterial plate experiment further showed that the antibacterial performance of the amoxicillin carbon nanodots was higher than that of the original amoxicillin. The amoxicillin carbon nanodots could quickly and conveniently detect Hg 2+ via changes in their fluorescence intensity. Moreover, several aliphatic alcohols could be distinguished and quantified based on the fluorescence intensity increase of the amoxicillin carbon nanodots. Most importantly, the amoxicillin carbon nanodots quickly identified and quantified methanol mixed in edible alcohol. These multifunctional amoxicillin carbon nanodots have broad application prospects in antibiosis, toxic Hg 2+ detection, and identification and detection of several aliphatic alcohols, especially the microfluorometric determination of methanol in edible alcoholic beverages.