Issue 50, 2023

An overview on animal/human biomass-derived carbon dots for optical sensing and bioimaging applications

Abstract

Over the past decade, carbon dots (CDs) have emerged as some of the extremely popular carbon nanostructures for diverse applications. The advantages of sustainable CDs, characterized by their exceptional photoluminescence (PL), high water solubility/dispersibility, non-toxicity, and biocompatibility, substantiate their potential for a wide range of applications in sensing and biology. Moreover, nature offers plant- and animal-derived precursors for the sustainable synthesis of CDs and their doped variants. These sources are not only readily accessible, inexpensive, and renewable but are also environmentally benign green biomass. This review article presents in detail the production of sustainable CDs from various animal and human biomass through bottom-up synthetic methods, including hydrothermal, microwave, microwave-hydrothermal, and pyrolysis methods. The resulting CDs exhibit a uniform size distribution, possibility of heteroatom doping, surface passivation, and remarkable excitation wavelength-dependent/independent emission and up-conversion PL characteristics. Consequently, these CDs have been successfully utilized in multiple applications, such as bioimaging and the detection of various analytes, including heavy metal ions. Finally, a comprehensive assessment is presented, highlighting the prospects and challenges associated with animal/human biomass-derived CDs for multifaceted applications.

Graphical abstract: An overview on animal/human biomass-derived carbon dots for optical sensing and bioimaging applications

Supplementary files

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Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
13 okt 2023
Accepted
15 nov 2023
First published
01 des 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2023,13, 35088-35126

An overview on animal/human biomass-derived carbon dots for optical sensing and bioimaging applications

P. Dubey, RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 35088 DOI: 10.1039/D3RA06976A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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