Pakistani scientists develop fluorescent nanoparticles using tea
KARACHI: A team of Pakistani scientists develop ed fluorescent nanoparticles from spent tea through an eco-friendly procedure. These nanoparticles could act like sensors in various medical applications. Aumber Abbas – a PhD scholar at the Newcastle University, UK and others from Oxford University UK, made this discovery by converting tea waste into Graphene Quantum Dots (GQDs) to design a highly selective sensor to detect iron in drinking water and Parkinson’s patients. The tiny particles are made from graphene – an allotrope of Carbon discovered in 2004 – consist of a sheet of carbon atoms that could be collected from a piece of graphite with scotch tape. The discovery of this magic material was awarded the Nobel Prize. Till then, graphene is an ideal material for new explorations in material science, medicine and other fields. Scientists and engineers around the world are still busy in fine-tuning graphene for desirable results. For instance, in March 2018, Pablo Jarillo-He