Photon correlation spectroscopy measures the effective radius of aggregating sugar clusters. These sugar clusters serve as the precursor for the production of larger-than-normal carbon "dots" with unique photoluminescence properties.
Our PCS studies of simple sugars (glucose, sucrose and trehalose) in water show a remarkable propensity for the formation of sugar clusters with the onset of a gel phase at weight percents in excess of 85% sugar. Moreover, when overheated these solutions assume a brown tint due to the formation of carbon particles that appear to be some 2 orders of magnitude larger than the sugar clusters they are formed from. This conversion to carbon is accompanied by an intense fluorescence commonly found in much smaller (nanometer-sized) carbon "dots". Current efforts are directed at understanding how these larger particles manage to share properties similar to their smaller-sized cousins.