Carbon dots and their pharmaceutical applications

Abstract

Carbon dots (C-dots) are carbon-based nanomaterials which become more important and of interest in recent years. In pharmaceutical fields, they have been developed and widely applied for various purposes, such as the delivery of drugs or gene. In addition, they have been used for bioimaging and biosensors due to their distinguishing fluorescence characteristics. Moreover, C-dots offer other advantages including biocompatibility, low toxicity, high water-solubility or dispersibility, ease of synthesis, high stability, and capability of functionalization on the surface. Nowadays, C-dots can be synthesized via either “top-down technology” or “bottom-up technology”. However, bottom-up technology is often favorable due to the lower cost and environmental friendliness. After the synthesis, the microstructure and optical properties of prepared C-dots are evaluated using ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, etc. This article reviews the general information, synthesis methods, characterization, and pharmaceutical applications of C-dots