We report the conducting nature of carbon dots (Cdots) synthesized from citric acid and ethylene diamine. Chemically synthesized conducting nanocomposite consisting of Cdots and polypyrrole (PPy) is further reported, which showed higher electrical conductiviy in comparison to the components i.e., Cdots or PPy. The conductive film of the composite material was used for highly sensitive and selective detection of picric acid in water as well as in soil. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the conductivity based sensing application of Cdot nanocomposite contrary to the traditional fluorescence based sensing approaches.
Keywords: conducting carbon dots; current−voltage (I−V) characteristics; organic electronics; picric acid; polypyrrole; sensing.