Research Projects

Melamine (MEL) is a widely used material in various industries, including plastics, paints, fire retardants, tabletops, and leathers. Its high nitrogen concentration of approximately 66% makes it illegally added to dairy products to enhance protein aggregate. ML combines with cyanuric acid, forming insoluble crystals in the body, which can cause severe effects like renal failure and death. Detection and estimation of MEL are crucial for ensuring the quality and safety of milk products. Histamine (HIST), a biogenic amine, is primarily produced by food ageing and microorganism activity during food storage. Conventional methods for estimating MEL and HIST are costly and time-consuming. A rapid method for fast sensing and estimation of these adulterants is needed. CQDs nano-fluorescent materials have shown applications as sensors due to their easy synthesis, water solubility, high fluorescence, and photo-stability. Doping with heteroatoms like N, P, B, and S is in trend to enhance fluorescence and emission properties. Smartphones are preferred over traditional measuring tools due to their portability and ease of use. Detecting major pollutants in food items is important for degrading contaminants from water. The present proposal proposes a green strategy to develop N-doped carbon quantum dots combined with a polymer matrix-based technology to detect and estimate the concentration of melamine and histamine in food samples using RGB-based methodology with a smart phone. The combination N-CQDs with metal ferrites will be biosynthesized and used for degradation of contaminants from water under direct sunlight.