Deep-Red to Near-Infrared Carbon Dots in Biosensing and Bio-medical Applications

With the rapid development in the field of biomedical diagnosis and treatment, carbon dots (CDs) with favorable photostability, biocompatibility and high quantum yields for deep-red to near-infrared emission have attracted the attention of a majority of researchers. By enlarging the sp² domain in the core of CDs, doping them with heteroatoms like nitrogen and sulfur, applying hydrothermal, electrochemical, or microwave-assisted techniques, CDs can be made with the aforementioned photoemission capabilities. In view of these excellent properties, CDs are flourishing in biosensing and biomedical applications, so that a thorough description and discussion of this topic is beneficial to capture the up-to-date progress of CDs in this field, providing suggestions and considerations for readers. (Figure presented.).