A reflection on ‘Using carbon nanodots as inexpensive and environmentally friendly sensitizers in mesoscopic solar cells’

Dirk M. Guldi; Lukáš Zdražil; Alejandro Cadranel

doi:10.1039/D5NH90077H

A reflection on ‘Using carbon nanodots as inexpensive and environmentally friendly sensitizers in mesoscopic solar cells’

Dirk M. Guldi,

*^a Lukáš Zdražil

^abc and Alejandro Cadranel

^ade

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy & FAU Profile Center Solar & Interdisciplinary Center for Molecular Materials (ICMM), Physical Chemistry I, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Egerlandstraße 3, Erlangen, Germany
E-mail: dirk.guldi@fau.de

^b Nanotechnology Centre, Centre for Energy and Environmental Technologies, VSB – Technical University of Ostrava, 17. listopadu 2172/15, 708 00 Ostrava-Poruba, Czech Republic

^c Regional Center of Advanced Technologies and Materials, The Czech Advanced Technology and Research Institute (CATRIN), Palacký University Olomouc, Šlechtitelů 27, Olomouc, Czech Republic

^d Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Departamento de Química Inorgánica, Analítica y Química Física, Pabellón 2, Ciudad Universitaria, Buenos Aires, Argentina

^e CONICET − Universidad de Buenos Aires, Instituto de Química-Física de Materiales, Medio Ambiente y Energía (INQUIMAE), Pabellón 2, Ciudad Universitaria, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract

In this reflection article, we review our journey with carbon dots (CDs), which began with using them in dye-sensitised solar cells (J. T. Margraf, F. Lodermeyer, V. Strauss, P. Haines, J. Walter, W. Peukert, R. D. Costa, T. Clark and D. M. Guldi, Nanoscale Horiz., 2016, 1, 220–226, https://doi.org/10.1039/C6NH00010J) and ultimately led to their use in photocatalytic proton reduction. Key milestones along this journey included establishing the structure–function relationship and gaining a mechanistic understanding of how CDs participate in proton reduction.

This article is part of the themed collection: Nanoscale Horizons 10-year Inaugural Authors Reflections

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https://doi.org/10.1039/D5NH90077H

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Commentary

First published

14 Jan 2026

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Nanoscale Horiz., 2026, Advance Article

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A reflection on ‘Using carbon nanodots as inexpensive and environmentally friendly sensitizers in mesoscopic solar cells’

D. M. Guldi, L. Zdražil and A. Cadranel, Nanoscale Horiz., 2026, Advance Article , DOI: 10.1039/D5NH90077H

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Nanoscale Horizons

A reflection on ‘Using carbon nanodots as inexpensive and environmentally friendly sensitizers in mesoscopic solar cells’

Abstract

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