Preparation of fluorescent materials from soybean pods and their applications in environmental monitoring and pharmaceutical analysis

In this study, the soybean pod was treated to prepare a kind of fluorescent carbon dots material. This material exhibits excellent photostability, time stability, and salt concentration stability. The fluorescence of carbon dots could be quenched by copper ions and recovered by ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid. BV2 cell imaging demonstrated that carbon dots particles were free to enter the cell’s interior and were not only less toxic but also smaller in size. We have successfully realized the monitoring of copper ion in real water samples and the analysis of ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid in two medicines.