Solar Energy Conversion Schemes; Photon- and Charge-Management

Abstract

In recent years carbon dots, graphene quantum dots, and other carbon nanocolloids have attracted a mounting interest as a readily available, non-toxic, and tailorable carbon-based nanomaterial. One of the most fascinating features of carbon nanocolloids is their luminescence, the origin of which remains often enigmatic. This lack of understanding of optical properies In these nanomaterials hampers their use in photoinduced processes of technological, environmental, and biomedical relevance. In this review, we provide an introduction to the properties of carbon nanocolloids associated with their excited states, highlighting multiple directions in which the field has proven its potential, together with others that remain to be explored. To this aim, we invite researchers in the field to embrace the complexity of carbon nanocolloids and address the elephant in the room, represented by the largely undisclosed structural features of this exciting class of nanomaterials.