Pivalic acid based N-doped carbon dots for drug delivery and antioxidant behaviour

Heteroatom doped surface engineered carbon dots has immense potential not only in their fluorescent sensing but also in nanocarrier for drug molecules and antioxidant behavior. Herein, we report a one-step thermal coupling synthesis of carbon dots from pivalic acid and naturally abundant gelatin (PGCDs). The as-synthesized PGCDs exhibited excellent colloidal stability, biocompatibility, and antioxidant activity. The surface of PGCDs was further modified with anticancer drug molecules to assess their drug delivery capabilities. The drug-loaded PGCDs demonstrated sustained release profiles, indicating their potential for controlled drug delivery applications. For understanding the drug delivery mechanism, the cumulative release data have been fitted into Weibull and Higuchi model. The PGCDs also showed pH sensitive release behavior where acidic environment has a better control in release profile compared to the alkaline pH. The concentration dependent radical activity shows more than 80% activity at below 1 mg/mL PGCDs concentration. Their low toxicity against live human cell lines could promote this PGCDs as a potential versatile nano-vector biomedical research area.