Are you really gonna eat those nanoparticles? At least heat them up…
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Carbon nanoparticles are tiny materials used in sensors, imaging, and environmental monitoring. But making them is often expensive and chemically intensive.
Enter Parul Singh and team from Indian Institute of Technology. They wondered whether a greener approach was possible for making them.
They heated extracts from medicinal plants in a microwave. After a few minutes, they produced carbon nanoparticles. Like making popcorn, natural organic compounds in the plants were quickly transformed into tiny carbon spheres.
So, yeah, researchers “cooked” high-tech nanomaterials from plants in a microwave.
If it were me, I’d melt some cheese on top.
Singh, P., Kannan, P.P., Dan, A. et al. Comparative study of medicinal-plant-derived carbon nanoparticles: green synthesis, antioxidant behavior, and metal-ion sensing. Nano Express 7, 015013 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1088/2632-959X/ae3d50