Carbon Dots: Classification, Properties, Synthesis, Characterization, and Applications in Health Care—An Updated Review (2018–2021)

Abstract

Carbon dots (CDs) are usually smaller than 10 nm in size, and are meticulously formulated and recently introduced nanomaterials, among the other types of carbon-based nanomaterials. They have gained significant attention and an incredible interest in the field of nanotechnology and biomedical science, which is merely due to their considerable and exclusive attributes; including their enhanced electron transferability, photobleaching and photo-blinking effects, high photoluminescent quantum yield, fluorescence property, resistance to photo-decomposition, increased electrocatalytic activity, good aqueous solubility, excellent biocompatibility, long-term chemical stability, cost-effectiveness, negligible toxicity, and acquaintance of large effective surface area-to-volume ratio. CDs can be readily functionalized owing to the abundant functional groups on their surfaces, and they also exhibit remarkable sensing features such as specific, selective, and multiplex detectability. In addition, the physico-chemical characteristics of CDs can be easily tunable based on their intended usage or application. In this comprehensive review article, we mainly discuss the classification of CDs, their ideal properties, their general synthesis approaches, and primary characterization techniques. More importantly, we update the readers about the recent trends of CDs in health care applications (viz., their substantial and prominent role in the area of electrochemical and optical biosensing, bioimaging, drug/gene delivery, as well as in photodynamic/photothermal therapy).