Carbon Nanodots in Electrochemical Sensors and Biosensors: A Review

This Review presents the latest advances in designing electrochemical sensors by using carbon nanodots (CNDs), carbon dots (CDs), and graphene quantum dots (GQDs), as a new class of photoluminescent nanomaterials, which can be employed in a vast number applications, such as biomedicine, biosensing, optical sensing, catalysis, solar cells, imaging, and electrochemical sensing. Recently, the application of CDs and GQDs in electrochemical sensing has increased significantly because of their unique features such as quantum size, excellent biocompatibility, enzyme-like activity, high active area, and abundance of hydrophilic groups, such as hydroxyl, carboxyl, or amine functionalities. The applications of CDs and GQDs for the electrochemical sensing of hydrogen peroxide, glucose, other organic molecules, as well as metal ions are presented. The utilization of CDs and GQDs for immunosensing and aptasensing is also reported.

Automated summary

Carbon nanodots, carbon dots, and graphene quantum dots are emerging as a new class of photoluminescent nanomaterials for designing electrochemical sensors, with unique features like quantum size, excellent biocompatibility, enzyme-like activity, and high active area. They have seen increased applications in electrochemical sensing for various substances and in immunosensing and aptasensing.