Recent advances in green carbon dots (2015–2022): synthesis, metal ion sensing, and biological applications

• Aisha Kanwal,
• Naheed Bibi,
• Sajjad Hyder,
• Arif Muhammad,
• Hao Ren,
• Jiangtao Liu and
• Zhongli Lei

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1068–1107, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.93

• especially focuses on the recent advancement (2015–2022) in the green synthesis of CDs, their application in metal ions sensing and microbial bioimaging, detection, and viability studies as well as their applications in pathogenic control and plant growth promotion. Keywords: bioimaging; carbon dots; carbon

• quantum dots; green synthesis; plant growth promotion; sensing; Introduction Carbon dots (CDs) are a carbon-based nanomaterial with a few nanometers feature sizes. CDs consist of a carbon core, the surface of which is functionalized with various groups. Xu et al. accidentally discovered fluorescent

• synthesis of CDs, the effects of surface states on optical properties, the characterization of CDs, metal ion sensing, and biological and agricultural applications of CDs, that is, microbial bioimaging, detection, and viability studies, pathogen control, and plant growth promotion (Figure 1). Review Green