Biomass-Derived Carbon Dots and Their Sensing Applications

Abstract

Carbon dots (CDs) can be widely used in the field of sensing because of its good water solubility, low toxicity, high fluorescence stability and excellent biocompatibility. It has become a popular trend to prepare high-value, inexpensive, renewable and environmentally friendly CDs sensors from biomass resources. This article reviewed the research progress of biomass-derived CDs as chemical, physical and biological sensors in recent years and studied their preparation processes and sensing abilities. Furthermore, the prospects and challenges of biomass-CDs sensors were discussed. This article is expected to provide inspirations for the design, preparation and application of biomass-CDs sensors in the future.

Modification of Carbon Dots for Metal‐Ions Detection

“…Multiple heteroatoms co-doped CDs is an interesting strategy for enhancing CDs performances due to the individual benefits from each component and synergistic effect between different heteroatoms that form unique electronic structures. [23][24] At the same time, co-doped CDs not only greatly improved the photoluminescence and quantum yield of CDs, but also provided more active sites in CDs to expand their practical applications. [54] Using citric acid and methionine as raw materials, Xiong Hai et al prepared N, S-doped carbon dots (N, S-CDs) with a high quantum yield of 32.5 %.…”

“…The sensing mechanisms of CDs for metal ions include co-ordination/ complexation, inner filter effect (IFE), photoinduced electron transfer (PET), ion binding and/or aggregation, and förster resonance energy transfer (FRET). [23][24][25][26] The complex formation mechanism is that the surface of doped CDs contains rich oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and other groups, which have the ability to donate their lone pair electrons to metal ions to form coordination complexes. [27] IFE is an important mechanism of fluorimetric nonradiative energy transfer, which is caused by the absorption of emitted or excited radiations by chromophoric or flurophoric species in detection system.…”

“…The excellent performances of CDs make them excellent materials for detecting metal ions. The sensing mechanisms of CDs for metal ions include co‐ordination/complexation, inner filter effect (IFE), photoinduced electron transfer (PET), ion binding and/or aggregation, and förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) [23–26] . The complex formation mechanism is that the surface of doped CDs contains rich oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and other groups, which have the ability to donate their lone pair electrons to metal ions to form coordination complexes [27] .…”

An overview on animal/human biomass-derived carbon dots for optical sensing and bioimaging applications

“…7,28,29 Besides the conventional chemical precursors, there has been extensive research on the synthesis, properties, and applications of natural biomass/waste source-derived CDs as evidenced by the large number of review articles. 30–55…”

“…Xiang et al 50 critically reviewed CDs obtained from biomass/waste for biological and environmental applications. Fan et al 52 described biomass-derived CDs for sensing applications. Recently, Singh et al 54 included CDs synthesized from a variety of biomass for the detection of hazardous ions.…”