Department of Nuclear Physics, Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Madras, Guindy Campus, Chennai-600 025, India E-mail: stephen_arum@hotmail.com Manuscript received online 01 September 2018, accepted 10 October 2018 Simple carbonization technique was followed to obtain amino functionalized carbon nanodots. Using chitosan as precursor, different methods were employed to optimise the carbon dots. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern showed a strong carbon peak for carbonised chitosan. Optical property of the as-prepared carbon dots was studied by UV-Visible spectroscopy. The Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) revealed the mass change of the carbon dots with respect to the temperature. The study reports the synthesis and characterization of carbon dots from chitosan as a suitable material for multifunctional applications.