Bio-imaging and drug carriers for delivery have created a huge demand for crystals. Crystals are fascinating materials that have been grown for a long time but obtaining biocompatible fluorescent crystals is a challenging task. We report on the growth of fluorescent crystals using a carbon dot (C-dot) solution by a hydrothermal process. The crystallization pattern of these C-dots exhibited a unique dendritic structure having a feather-like morphology. The growth temperature and pressure were maintained at 60°C and 200 mmHg, respectively, for crystal growth. A green fluorescence (under UV light) that was observed in the C-dot solution was retained in the crystals formed from the solution. Cytotoxicity studies on Vero cells revealed the crystals to be extremely biocompatible. These fluorescent crystals are extremely well suited for biomedical and optoelectronic applications.

Synthesis of carbon fibers from cotton fiber by pyrolysis process has been described. Synthesis parameters are optimized using Taguchi optimization technique. Synthesized carbon fibers are used for studying hydrogen adsorption capacity using Seivert's apparatus. Transmission electron microscopy analysis and X-ray diffraction of carbon fiber from cotton suggested it to be very transparent type material possessing graphitic nature. Carbon synthesized from cotton fibers under the conditions predicted by Taguchi optimization methodology (no treatment of cotton fiber prior to pyrolysis, temperature of pyrolysis 800℃, Argon as carrier gas and paralyzing time for 2 h) exhibited 7.32 wt% hydrogen adsorption capacity.