Carbon dots as a new class of nanomedicines: Opportunities and challenges

Narrow‐bandwidth emissive carbon dots: A rising star in the fluorescent material family

“…Compared with traditional semiconductor inorganic quantum dots and organic luminophores, CDs possess the advantages of easy preparation, low cost, availability of abundant raw materials, low toxicity, high biocompatibility, high stability, and superior optical properties. Because of these distinctive advantages, fluorescent CDs have excellent potential applications in many fields including optical sensors, 12 information encryption, 13 catalysis, 14,15 light‐emitting diodes (LEDs), 16 batteries, 17 supercapacitors, 18 and biomedicine 19,20 . Besides, CDs generally possess several functional groups, like amino, hydroxyl, carboxyl, and carbonyl on the edge, which endow them with good solution‐processability, and can be further modified to confer CDs with different properties as well as diverse applications.…”

“…Because of these distinctive advantages, fluorescent CDs have excellent potential applications in many fields including optical sensors, 12 information encryption, 13 catalysis, 14,15 lightemitting diodes (LEDs), 16 batteries, 17 supercapacitors, 18 and biomedicine. 19,20 Besides, CDs generally possess several functional groups, like amino, hydroxyl, carboxyl, and carbonyl on the edge, which endow them with good solution-processability, and can be further modified to confer CDs with different properties as well as diverse applications.…”

Carbon dot composites for bioapplications: a review

“…For instance, in Yan and co-workers’ study, glyoxylic acid-modified CDs (GA-CDs) were used as a FRET ratiometric fluorescent probe for the detection of Cu 2+ in aqueous solution. 388 Similarly, Chen et al also applied cyclam-functionalized CDs as a FRET nanoprobe for the detection of Cu 2+ and S. 2–389 In addition to the above examples, the detection of other important metal ions such as Ag + , Cu 2+ , Cr 6+ , and Pb 2+ has also been successfully realized with CD composite-based sensing platforms. 390–401…”

“…32–36 For instance, recent advancements of near-infrared (NIR) C-dots and their biomedical applications have been systematically summarized by Xiong's 37 and Qu's groups. 38 Reviews focused on one specific application of C-dots in biosensing, 39,40 phototherapy, 41 and nanomedicine 42,43 as well as bone tissue engineering 44 have also been published. Even though significant progress has been achieved, applications of CDs in biomedical fields still face some challenges.…”

Ultrasonic-Assisted Synthesis of N-Doped, Multicolor Carbon Dots toward Fluorescent Inks, Fluorescence Sensors, and Logic Gate Operations

“…Carbon dots (CDs) have received increasing attention owing to their excellent biocompatibility, good water solubility, low cytotoxicity, robust chemical inertness, high photo/chemical stability, and strong resistance to photobleaching [ 1 , 2 ]. They have especially demonstrated huge potential applications in a wide range of fields, such as sensing, bioimaging, drug delivery, photocatalysis, energy storage, anticounterfeiting, light-emitting diodes (LED), and so on [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. Among these applications, great efforts have been devoted to synthesizing the efficient CDs via surface modification and/or heteroatom doping [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ].…”