The photoluminescence of carbon quantum dots synthesized from natural honey and mixtures of honey and sugar has been studied. An increase in the sugar content leads to a decrease in the photoluminescence intensity without changing the shape of the luminescence spectrum of these quantum dots aqueous solutions, which is associated with a decrease in the yield of their synthesis in the sugar presence. The discovered effect can be used to detect sugar in honey. When examining five different market samples of flower honey using this method, two of them showed a significant decrease in the photoluminescence intensity. A laboratory test for compliance with GOST 19792-2017 Standard requirements established an excess of the sucrose content in these samples. Luminescent determination of sugar in honey does not require complicated equipment and can be used to develop a new analytical method for determining the sugar content in counterfeit natural honey.
Silver nanoparticles-based plasmonic assay for the determination of sugar content in food matrices