Food packaging plays a crucial role in ensuring the safety and quality of food products. In this context, the development of functional materials based on biodegradable polymers has emerged as a promising approach to overcome the limitations of conventional systems. Among these materials, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) combined with carbon dots (CDs) has attracted attention due to the improvements in mechanical and functional properties. In this study, CDs were synthesized from acerola residue ( Malpighia emarginata D.C.) via a hydrothermal route and incorporated into a PVA matrix to obtain composite films. The synthesized CDs exhibited promising optical, morphological and physicochemical characteristics, including maximum fluorescence emission at 440 nm under 360 nm excitation, quantum yield (QY) of 20.1%, average diameter of 5.30 nm and abundant surface functional groups. In addition, pH-dependent fluorescence (maximum at pH 9), and antioxidant activity against DPPH and ABTS radicals (EC 50 of 0.39 mg/mL and 0.22 mg/mL, respectively) were observed. The incorporation of CDs derived from acerola residue (AR-CDs) into PVA at concentrations of 0%, 0.08%, and 0.16% resulted in composite films (CFs) with improved mechanical properties, evidenced by increased tensile strength while maintaining flexibility, as well as fluorescence proportional to CDs concentration, pH-responsive behavior and enhanced antioxidant activity (ABTS). Overall, the results indicate that CDs derived from acerola residue can be effectively incorporated into polymeric matrices, contributing to the development of sustainable materials with functional optical and antioxidant properties. These findings represent a proof-of-concept and highlight the potential of such systems for future applications in advanced packaging.
Hall et al. (Wed,) studied this question.