Doped Carbon Dots as Promising Fluorescent Nanosensors: Synthesis, Characterization, and Recent Applications

Abstract

Carbon dots (CDs) have recently attracted attention as a new class of photoluminescent materials with promising optical, chemical, and electrical properties. They have been proposed for various applications, such as pharmaceutical sensing, biomarker detection, and cellular bioimaging, by virtue of their economical synthesis, cheap starting materials, water-solubility, excellent chemical stability, good biocompatibility, and low toxicity. Hetero-atom doping is a reliable and adaptable strategy for enhancing the photoluminescence, electrical, and structural characteristics of CDs. Herein, we present an update on heteroatom-doped CDs. Various modern synthetic routes are highlighted, ranging from synthetic processes to doping components. In addition, the optical and biological properties and the possible applications of heteroatom-doped CDs are discussed. This review (with 227 references) will provide an overview of recent advances in doped CDs and their expected future perspectives.

White sustainable luminescent determination of nifuroxazide using nitrogen–sulphur co-doped carbon quantum dots nanosensor in bulk and various pharmaceutical matrices

“…15 Special luminous nanosensors known as carbon quantum dots have extraordinary optical and electrical properties along with tiny size and large surface area, making them more promising for use in biomedical and biotechnological applications. 16 Carbon dots have been widely used as alternative luminescent nanoprobes for quantitative determination of analytes previously assayed by uorescent dyes or semiconductor quantum dots due to their excellent photostability, tunable emission wavelength, good water-solubility, and low elemental toxicity. 17,18 Regarding synthesis of luminescent carbon quantum dots; many procedures and methodologies have been developed for this aim, these include: carbonization, 19,20 chemical and electrochemical oxidation, [21][22][23][24] hydrothermal cutting methodologies, 25 microwave-assisted methodology, 26 and others.…”

Green Synthesis of Sulfur- and Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Quantum Dots for Determination of L-DOPA Using Fluorescence Spectroscopy and a Smartphone-Based Fluorimeter

“…Low-cost production of sensors is considered an advantage. In this way, CQDs can be produced from low-cost precursors, including citric acid as noncomplex organic molecules or more heterogeneous precursors such as orange juice, rice, leaves, ashes, or even waste. , This means they can be synthesized almost from every organic material around us.…”

Sulfur and nitrogen co-doped carbon quantum dots as fluorescent probes for the determination of some pharmaceutically-important nitro compounds

“…Due to their excellent photo-physical properties, high quantum yields, superior solubility, low toxicity, lowcost, and eco-friendly nature with strong fluorescence emission, carbon-quantum-dots (CQDs)-have piqued theinterest-of researchers in a variety of fields [34][35][36][37] . The top-down 38,39 and bottom-up 40 approaches-for synthesis-of CQDs have both been reported 41 .…”