Carbon dots self-decorated heteroatom-doped porous carbon with superior electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction

Comprehensive Overview of Controlled Fabrication of Multifunctional Fluorescent Carbon Quantum Dots and Exploring Applications

In recent years, carbon dots (CDs) have garnered increasing attention due to their simple preparation methods, versatile performances, and wide-ranging applications. CDs can manifest various optical, physical, and chemical properties including quantum yield (QY), emission wavelength (Em), solid-state fluorescence (SSF), room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP), material-specific responsivity, pH sensitivity, anti-oxidation and oxidation, and biocompatibility. These properties can be effectively regulated through precise control of the CD preparation process, rendering them suitable for diverse applications. However, the lack of consideration given to the precise control of each feature of CDs during the preparation process poses a challenge in obtaining the requisite features for various applications. This paper is to analyze existing research and present novel concepts and ideas for creating CDs with different distinct features and applications. The synthesis methods of CDs are discussed in the first section, followed by a comprehensive overview of the important properties of CDs and the modification strategy. Subsequently, the application of CDs and their requisite properties are reviewed. Finally, the paper outlines the current challenges in controlling CDs properties and their applications, discusses potential solutions, and offers suggestions for future research.

Preparation of Fluorescent Carbon Dots Composites and Their Potential Applications in Biomedicine and Drug Delivery-A Review

Carbon dots (CDs), a new member of carbon nanostructures, rely on surface modification and functionalization for their good fluorescence phosphorescence and excellent physical and chemical properties, including small size (<10 nm), high chemical stability, biocompatibility, non-toxicity, low cost, and easy synthesis. In the field of medical research on cancer (IARC), CDs, a new material with unique optical properties as a photosensitizer, are being applied to heating local apoptosis induction of cancer cells. In addition, imaging tools can also be combined with a drug to form the nanometer complex compound, the imaging guidance for multi-function dosage, so as to improve the efficiency of drug delivery, which also plays a big role in genetic diagnosis. This paper mainly includes three parts: The first part briefly introduces the synthesis and preparation of carbon dots, and summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of different preparation methods; The second part introduces the preparation methods of carbon dot composites. Finally, the application status of carbon dot composites in biomedicine, cancer theranostics, drug delivery, electrochemistry, and photocatalysis is summarized.

Construction of Co,N-Coordinated Carbon Dots for Efficient Oxygen Reduction Reaction

For the sake of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalytic performance, carbon dots (CDs) doped with metal atoms have accelerated their local electron flow for the past few years. However, the influence of CDs doped with metal atoms on binding sites and formation mechanisms is still uncertain. Herein, Co,N-doped CDs were facilely prepared by the low-temperature polymerization-solvent extraction strategy from EDTA-Co. The influence of Co doping on the catalytic performance of Co-CDs was explored, mainly in the following aspects: first, the pyridinic N atom content of Co-CDs significantly increased from 4.2 to 11.27 at% compared with the CDs, which indicates that the Co element in the precursor is advantageous in forming more pyridinic-N-active sites for boosting the ORR performance. Second, Co-CDs are uniformly distributed on the surface of carbon black (CB) to form Co-CDs@CB by the facile hydrothermal route, which can expose more active sites than the aggregation status. Third, the highest graphite N content of Co-CDs@CB was found, by limiting the current density of the catalyst towards the ORR. Composite nanomaterials formed by Co and CB are also used as air electrodes to manufacture high-performance zinc-air batteries. The battery has good cycle stability and realizes stable charges and discharges under different current densities. The outstanding catalytic activity of Co-CDs@CB is attributed to the Co,N synergistic effect induced by Co doping, which pioneer a new metal doping mechanism for gaining high-performance electrocatalysts.

Heavy metal ion detection using green precursor derived carbon dots

The discovery of carbon dots (CDs) for environmental remediation has gained awareness because of the diverse economically viable and environmental friendly green precursors generated from biowastes and biomass compared to the toxic inorganic quantum dots and CDs prepared from chemical precursors. This review presents the recent progress in green CDs, including their synthesis methods and sensing applications for the detection of heavy metal ions such as Iron (III), Mercury (II), Copper (II), Chromium (VI), Lead (II), Arsenic (III), Cobalt (II), Aluminum (III), Silver (I), and Gold (III) which are prominent environmental pollutants. The comparison based on selectivity, sensitivity, quantum yield, detection limit, linear concentration range, and sensing mechanisms are also reported. This review also covers the performance of doped green CDs using heteroatoms, toward the detection of heavy metal ions. Apart from the future perspectives, this review provides a general guide to use such environmental friendly CDs to detect harmful pollutants.

Dual Fluorescence in Glutathione-Derived Carbon Dots Revisited

Dual-fluorescence carbon dots have great potential as nanosensors in life and materials sciences. Such carbon dots can be obtained via a solvothermal synthesis route with glutathione and formamide. In this work, we show that the dual-fluorescence emission of the synthesis products does not originate from a single carbon dot emitter, but rather from a mixture of physically separate compounds. We characterized the synthesis products with UV-vis, Raman, infrared, and fluorescence spectroscopy, and identified blue-emissive carbon dots and red-emissive porphyrin. We demonstrate an easy way to separate the two compounds without the need for time-consuming dialysis. Understanding the nature of the system, we can now steer the synthesis toward the desired product, which paves the way for a cheap and environmentally friendly synthesis route toward carbon dots, water-soluble porphyrin, and mixed systems.

B-doped graphene quantum dots implanted into bimetallic organic framework as a highly active and robust cathodic catalyst in the microbial fuel cell

Developing efficient and durable oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) cathodic catalysts plays an essential role in application of microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Herein, the B-doped graphene quantum dots implanted into bimetallic organic framework (BGQDs/MOF-t) are fabricated by a facile electro-deposition. Results show that, the in-situ growth of FeCoMOF on nickel foam can effectively assist construction of nanoflowers with compact connections, thus improves the conductivity. More importantly, this nano-network can serve as the template for the implantation of BGQDs through powerful interface of M-O-C bonding, avoiding π-π rearrangement and providing efficient charge transfer and abundant edge active sites. Benefitting from the enhanced electrode/electrolyte transport interface, abundant catalytic sites and low charge transfer resistance, the BGQDs/MOF-15 exhibits excellent ORR activity, superior to commercial Pt/C catalyst. In the MFC with the BGQDs/MOF-15 cathode, the maximum power density of 703.55 mW m^-2 is achieved, which is 1.53 times of that of the Pt/C cathode. In addition, the BGQDs/MOF-15 cathode maintains great stability over 800 h, while that of Pt/C reduces to 61% of the initial voltage. This work opens new opportunities for developing efficient and durable MOF-derived ORR catalyst.

Nanostructured Carbon Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversions

The growing energy demand worldwide has led to increased use of fossil fuels. This, in turn, is making fossil fuels dwindle faster and cause more negative environmental impacts. Thus, alternative, environmentally friendly energy sources such as fuel cells and electrolyzers are being developed. While significant progress has already been made in this area, such energy systems are still hard to scale up because of their noble metal catalysts. In this concept paper, first, various scalable nanocarbon-based electrocatalysts that are being synthesized for energy conversions in these energy systems are introduced. Next, notable heteroatom-doping and nanostructuring strategies that are applied to produce different nanostructured carbon materials with high electrocatalytic activities for energy conversions are discussed. The concepts used to develop such materials with different structures and large density of dopant-based catalytic functional groups in a sustainable way, and the challenges therein, are emphasized in the discussions. The discussions also include the importance of various analytical, theoretical, and computational methods to probe the relationships between the compositions, structures, dopants, and active catalytic sites in such materials. These studies, coupled with experimental studies, can further guide innovative synthetic routes to efficient nanostructured carbon electrocatalysts for practical, large-scale energy conversion applications.

Electrochemiluminescence of water-dispersed nitrogen and sulfur doped carbon dots synthesized from amino acids

A facile one-pot hydrothermal approach for synthesizing water-dispersed nitrogen and sulfur doped carbon dots (NS-CDs) with high luminescence quantum yield was explored, using cysteine and tryptophan as precursors. The NS-CDs were characterized by means of FT-IR spectroscopy, XRD, TEM, etc. It was found that the absolute photoluminescence quantum yield (QY) of the NS-CDs determined with an integrating sphere can reach up to 73%, with an average decay time of 17.06 ns. Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) behaviors and mechanisms of the NS-CDs/K₂S₂O₈ coreactant system were investigated. When the working electrode was modified with the prepared NS-CDs, the ECL efficiency of the NS-CDs with K₂S₂O₈ was 24%, relative to Ru(bpy)₃Cl₂/K₂S₂O₈. This work shows great potential for the NS-CDs to be used in bioanalytical applications.

Metal-free N and O Co-doped carbon directly derived from bicrystal Zn-based zeolite-like metal-organic frameworks as durable high-performance pH-universal oxygen reduction reaction catalyst

A simple and green approach is studied for the preparation of a high-activity metal-free N,O-codoped porous carbon (NOPC) electrocatalyst by one-step pyrolysis of pristine zinc-based zeolite-like metal-organic framework (Zn-ZMOF) synthesized by hydrothermal method from Zn²⁺and 4,5-imidazoledicarboxylic acid (H₃IDC) in H₂O solvent. It is found that the structure and electroactivity of Zn-ZMOF and NOPC vary with the molar ratio of H₃IDC to zinc acetate. NOPC shows pH-universal electrocatalytic property for oxygen reduction reaction and its electrocatalytic performance is similar to that of Pt/C in alkaline and neutral electrolytes, and is close to that of Pt/C in acidic electrolyte, which is a relatively rare case for metal-free porous carbon derived from pristine MOF. Meanwhile, NOPC displays higher long-term stability and better tolerance to methanol and carbon monoxide poisoning than that of commercial Pt/C. The excellent performance of NOPC is mainly due to the special structure of the precursor Zn-ZMOF, and the synergism of abundant active sites, micro/mesoporous structure, large specific surface area, and high degree of graphitization.