Conclusions and future outlook

Abstract

For a young and emerging field, Carbon-Dots (and their close relatives graphene quantum dots) have already made a significant impact in diverse scientific disciplines. Carbon-Dots have opened new avenues in biological imaging, photonics, electro-optics, and others. In particular, the unique luminescence properties of Carbon-Dots, primarily the excitation-dependent emission phenomena, have been a prominent thread in this field, making possible diverse experiments and analytical applications developed in the past several years. The optical and spectroscopic properties of Carbon-Dots will likely continue to shape the future development of this field.