Abstract
Nanoparticles possess unique features due to their small size and can be composed of different surface chemistries. Carbon quantum dots possess several unique physico-chemical and antibacterial activities. This review provides an overview of different methods to prepare carbon quantum dots from different carbon sources in order to provide guidelines for choosing methods and carbon sources that yield carbon quantum dots with optimal antibacterial efficacy. Antibacterial activities of carbon quantum dots predominantly involve cell wall damage and disruption of the matrix of infectious biofilms through reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation to cause dispersal of infecting pathogens that enhance their susceptibility to antibiotics. Quaternized carbon quantum dots from organic carbon sources have been found to be equally efficacious for controlling wound infection and pneumonia in rodents as antibiotics. Carbon quantum dots derived through heating of natural carbon sources can inherit properties that resemble those of the carbon sources they are derived from. This makes antibiotics, medicinal herbs and plants or probiotic bacteria ideal sources for the synthesis of antibacterial carbon quantum dots. Importantly, carbon quantum dots have been suggested to yield a lower chance of inducing bacterial resistance than antibiotics, making carbon quantum dots attractive for large scale clinical use.
Highlights
The spread of antibacterial-resistant infections is considered to be one of the largest threats to public health [1]
“Top-down” synthesis methods break down large carbon-rich materials as a carbon source, whereas “bottom-up” methods synthesize carbon quantum dots from small precursor molecules
Among the synthetic carbon sources distinguished in this review, organic carbon sources more broadly cover the entire spectrum of antibacterial activities distinguished here than inorganic carbon sources
Summary
The spread of antibacterial-resistant infections is considered to be one of the largest threats to public health [1]. Nanoparticles can be composed of highly different surface chemistries and generally range in size from several nanometers to hundreds of nanometers (for comparison, a gold atom has a diameter of one third of a nanometer), yielding large surface areas and highly diverse shapes. These unique features can provide nanoparticles with antibacterial activity. All carbon quantum dots possess sp or sp3 -hybridized carbon domains that provide stability and special optical features, including giant Stokes shifts in photoluminescence and a strong dependence of emission color on excitation wavelength, depending on their size, core structure and composition [14]. Summary of methods to synthesize carbon quantum dots, including suitable sources,ortheir advantages stron he and disadvantages
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