Recent Progress on the Synthesis and Applications of Cu@CD

Abstract

Metal doped carbon dots (CDs) have been extensively studied due to their tunable and strong fluorescence emission properties, which make them applicable for sensing, organic catalysis, optronics, and biomedicine. This has attracted the attention of many researchers to develop transition metal-doped CDs. In this article, we have discussed various syntheses and applications of copper doped CDs (Cu@CDs). We have mainly focused on copper because of its various advantages, such as low cost, low toxicity, natural abundance, and ability to show 0-III oxidation states which give them access to show both one and two-electron processes. Majorly, we have briefed on the recent progress in the synthesis, functionalization, and applications of Cu@CDs using chemical reduction, hydrothermal, solvothermal, thermolysis, and green synthesis from various chemical and natural carbon pre-cursors. Afterward, we have discussed their applications in analyte detection and sensing, organic catalysis, anti-microbial activity, bio-imaging, and cancer therapy.