Recent Advances in Luminescent Carbon Dots

Since the discovery of their benign (non-toxic) and excellent fluorescent properties, carbon dots (or C-dots) have attracted extensive attentions and presented a clear demonstration of great potential in bioanalytical applications. This intrinsic and somewhat exceptional nontoxic property of C-dots makes them potential alternatives to the conventional semiconductor quantum dots counterpart containing heavy metals that pose serious health and environmental concerns. After a brief discussion of their earlier and current synthetic strategies, a comprehensive summary of the synthetic routes together with their corresponding advantages and disadvantages is reviewed. Functional surface manipulations of C-dots aiming at improving quantum yield and stability for more excellent fluorescent sensing are summarized. This paper provides a concise review of recent significant advances in C-dots, focusing on the synthesis, the optical properties and the analytical applications.