Abstract
Carbon dots (CDs) have emerged as a potential material in the multifarious fields of biomedical applications due to their numerous advantageous properties including tunable fluorescence, water solubility, biocompatibility, low toxicity, small size and ease of modification, inexpensive scale-up production, and versatile conjugation with other targeted nanoparticles. Thus, CDs became a preferable choice in various biomedical applications such as nanocarriers for drugs, therapeutic genes, photo sensitizers, unique electronic, fluorescent, photo luminescent, chemiluminescent, and electro chemiluminescent, drug/gene delivery and optoelectronics properties are what gives them potential in sensing and antibacterial molecules. Further, their potentials have also been verified in multifunctional diagnostic platforms, cellular and bacterial bio-imaging, development of nanomedicine, etc. This present review provides a concise insight into the progress and evolution in the field of carbon dots research with respect to synthesis methods and materials available in bio-imaging, theranostic, cancer, gene therapy, diagnostics, etc. Further, our discussion is extended to explore the role of CDs in nanomedicine and nano theranostic, biotherapy which is the future of biomedicine and also serves to discuss the various properties of carbon dots which allow chemotherapy and gene therapy to be safer and more target-specific, resulting in the reduction of side effects experienced by patients and also the overall increase in patient compliance and quality of life and representative studies on their activities against bacteria, fungi, and viruses reviewed and discussed. This study will thus help biomedical researchers in percuss the potential of CDs to overcome various existing technological challenges.
Highlights
Carbon nanodots are nano-crystals of nano materials having zero dimensions are smaller than 10 nm [1]
Being a new kind of fluorescent nanomaterial and having excellent biocompatibility, Carbon dots (CDs) are widely used in the area of bio-imaging both in vitro and in vivo and in diagnosis purposes, eco-friendliness, conductivity, desirable optical properties and low toxicity, carbon dots have revolutionized the biomedical field, in Photothermal as well as photodynamic therapy and drug/gene delivery carriers [9,10,11]
Large-scale synthesis of high-quality CDs with controlled size distribution was achieved via an electrochemical approach using ultrapure water as a solvent, and electrochemical synthesis is the method of the choice for synthesizing the homogeneous morphological CDs
Summary
Carbon nanodots are nano-crystals of nano materials having zero dimensions are smaller than 10 nm [1]. Hydrothermal synthesis method is being used by most of researchers as a cheap, eco-friendly, easy to handle and low-cost route to synthesize CDs from saccharides, amines, organic acids and their derivatives and from diverse carbon-based precursors In this methodology, a solution of organic precursors is sealed in a hydrothermal synthetic reactor where the reaction occurs at high temperature and pressure. Microwave-assisted synthesis is a fast, low-cost, scalable and nontoxic, energy-efficient method to synthesize CDs via the irradiation of electromagnetic radiations having a wavelength ranging from 1 mm to 1 m through the reaction mixture containing the precursor molecules In this methodology, carbonization of the small organic molecule occurs by microwave heating within a very short period of time [78, 79].
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