Carbon dots: A mystic star in the world of nanoscience

Abstract

Carbon dots (CDs) have received significant attention worldwide from the beginning of this century, and recently, it has bloomed in every branch of applied sciences. Because of their outstanding physical and chemical properties together with biocompatibilities, CDs find a wide spectrum of applications in drug delivery, explosive detection, chemical sensing, food safety, bioimaging, energy conversion, photocatalysis, etc. This brief review is focused on the synthesis of CDs and their applications. The photophysical properties of CDs are also discussed herewith.