Carbon dots in drug delivery and therapeutic applications

Carbon dots (CDs) are recently introduced carbon nanomaterials showing diverse properties. They show unique fluorescent behavior, low production cost, ecofriendliness, electron mobility, potent antioxidant and antibacterial capabilities, good biocompatibility, and abundant functional groups providing opportunities in functionalization for desired properties such as targeted drug delivery, diagnostics, and therapeutics. In this review, we provide a general overview of their synthesis processes, including top-down and bottom-up approaches and their associated benefits and drawbacks. Together with their pros and cons, we also explore the structural and optical properties, photoluminescence mechanisms, free…