Waste Polyethylene-Derived Carbon Dots: Administration of Metal-Free Oxidizing Agents for Tunable Properties and Photocatalytic Hyperactivity.

The possibility of converting waste plastics into carbon dots (CDs) with 100% efficiencies using KMnO has emerged as a significant discovery in mitigating plastic pollution and upcycling. However, the lack of tunability of their properties, viz. aerial O harvesting, light-induced autophagy, and photoactivity using air as a free oxidant, has remained a bottleneck.