Recent Advancements in Doped/Co-Doped Carbon Quantum Dots for Multi-Potential Applications

Abstract

Carbon quantum dots (CQDs)/carbon nanodots are a new class of fluorescent carbon nanomaterials having an approximate size in the range of 2−10 nm. The majority of the reported review articles have discussed about the development of the CQDs (via simple and cost-effective synthesis methods) for use in bio-imaging and chemical-/biological-sensing applications. However, there is a severe lack of consolidated studies on the recently developed CQDs (especially doped/co-doped) that are utilized in different areas of application. Hence, in this review, we have extensively discussed about the recent development in doped and co-doped CQDs (using elements/heteroatoms—e.g., boron (B), fluorine (F), nitrogen (N), sulphur (S), and phosphorous (P)), along with their synthesis method, reaction conditions, and/or quantum yield (QY), and their emerging multi-potential applications including electrical/electronics (such as light emitting diode (LED) and solar cells), fluorescent ink for anti-counterfeiting, optical sensors (for detection of metal ions, drugs, and pesticides/fungicides), gene delivery, and temperature probing.

Keywords

• carbon quantum dots (CQDs)
• carbon dots (CDs)
• carbon nanodots (CNDs)
• doping of heteroatoms
• boron (B), fluorine (F), nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) and sulphur (S) doped and co-doped CQDs
• quantum yield
• solar cells
• LED
• detection of drugs
• pesticides
• fungicides
• and metal ions
• fluorescent Ink
• anti-counterfeiting
• gene delivery
• cell imaging/labeling
• temperature probe