A review on the synthesis of carbon nano-dots and investigation of their photoluminescence properties

Carbon nanodots (C-dots) are a new class of carbon nanomaterials (grapheme, carbon nanotube, fullerene) which have been identified. This carbon quantum dots have passivated surface which due to the resistance to photobleaching, ease of bioconjugation, without incurring the burden of intrinsic toxicity or elemental scarcity have attracted a great deal of attention. Carbon nano-dot generally contains carboxylic acid moieties at their surface, so imparting them whith excellent water solubility and suitability for subsequent functionalization with various organic, polymeric, inorganic, or biological species. Their well-defined, nearly isotropic shapes together with their ultrafine dimensions, tunable surface functionalities, and the sheer variety of simple, fast, and cheap synthetic routes available provide an encouraging technological platform for C-dot emitters as alternatives to other nanocarbons (fullerenes, nanodiamonds, carbon nanotubes) in a host of applications. However, the most notable point about the carbon nanodots is their replacement capacity with the toxic quantum dot-based metals.