Biomass‐Derived Carbon Dots and Their Applications

Abstract

Carbon dots (CDs) have received much attention due to their superior properties including water solubility, low toxicity, biocompatibility, small size, fluorescence, and ease of modification. The use of a more environmentally friendly method to prepare high‐quality CDs is still an urgent question waiting for solve. The use of renewable, inexpensive, and green biomass resources not only meets the urgent need for large‐scale synthesis biomass CDs (BCDs), but also promotes the development of sustainable applications. In this article, we summarize the representative methods for synthesizing BCDs in green and simple ways using biomass as a carbon source, including hydrothermal carbonization, and microwave, pyrolysis. The prepared BCDs have a uniform particle size distribution and a relatively high throughput, which provide a method to scale up industrial production. Moreover, the integration of specific optical properties, that is, tunable photoluminescence and up‐photoluminescence, has led to remarkable use in bioimaging, sensing, and drug delivery. But the current review is not particularly comprehensive for BCDs. Therefore, we now provide a review focusing on the synthesis, properties, and recent advances in BCDs in biosensing, bioimaging, optoelectronics, and catalytic applications.

Near-infrared emissive carbon dots with 33.96% emission in aqueous solution for cellular sensing and light-emitting diodes

“…Carbon dots (CDs) have attracted much attention recently due to its excellent physical chemical and optical properties [1][2][3][4], low amounts of photobleaching, low cytotoxicity and excellent biocompatibilities [5,6], unlike traditional semiconductor quantum dots, such as those based on CdX (X = S, Se, Te) [7][8][9]. Nowadays CDs have been widely used for bioimaging, detection probes, drug delivery, and optoelectronic devices [10][11][12][13][14].…”

Sensors Made of Natural Renewable Materials: Efficiency, Recyclability or Biodegradability—The Green Electronics

“…Indeed, carbon materials are renewable by essence, being obtained through green processes from biomass, e.g., pyrolysis or hydrothermal carbonization [ 29 , 30 ], and can degrade or return to nature without further treatment, except for finely divided nanomaterials. Macroporous carbonaceous materials [ 31 ], carbon fibers [ 32 ], carbon dots [ 33 , 34 ], carbon nanotubes or nanohorns, etc., can be synthesized from green processes then disposed of without the need for particular depollution treatments. Carbon materials are mainly applied as a substrate or supporting matrix, in the form of simple carbon black, carbon felt or carbon fiber, but also as supporting nanoparticles such as carbon nanotubes, graphene or reduced graphene oxide sheets, etc.…”

Applications of Carbon Dots in Next‐generation Lithium‐Ion Batteries

“…Utilization of CDs is an effective strategy to solve many issues owing to their various surface functional groups, multiple element doping structures, natural defects and edges on their large surface area, and high reactivity due to numerous dangling bonds on CDs surfaces. [28][29][30][31][32] For example, electric conductivity could be elevated by incorporation of CDs to form a composite anode material and thus result in improved rate performance. [33] A diversity of elements can be doped into CDs to form hetero structures to provide excellent interfaces for intercalations between electrode materials and electrolytes, enhancing the reversibility of intercalation reactions; [34] CDs play a protective role in accommodating the volume change during Li alloying/ de-alloying, resulting in dramatically improved reversible capacity and cycling stability.…”