When rare earth meets carbon nanodots: Mechanisms, applications and outlook

Mengzhen Zhang, Xinyun Zhai, Mingzi Sun, Tengfei Ma, Yongkang Huang, Bolong Huang (Corresponding Author), Yaping Du, Chunhua Yan

Research output: Journal article publicationReview articleAcademic researchpeer-review

88 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Rare earth (RE) elements are widely used in the luminescence and magnetic fields by virtue of their abundant 4f electron configurations. However, the overall performance and aqueous stability of single-component RE materials need to be urgently improved to satisfy the requirements for multifunctional applications. Carbon nanodots (CNDs) are excellent nanocarriers with abundant functional surface groups, excellent hydrophilicity, unique photoluminescence (PL) and tunable features. Accordingly, RE-CND hybrids combine the merits of both RE and CNDs, which dramatically enhance their overall properties such as luminescent and magnetic-optical imaging performances, leading to highly promising practical applications in the future. Nevertheless, a comprehensive review focusing on the introduction and in-depth understanding of RE-CND hybrid materials has not been reported to date. This review endeavors to summarize the recent advances of RE-CNDs, including their interaction mechanisms, general synthetic strategies and applications in fluorescence, biosensing and multi-modal biomedical imaging. Finally, we present the current challenges and the possible application perspectives of newly developed RE-CND materials. We hope this review will inspire new design ideas and valuable references in this promising field in the future. This journal is

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)9220-9248
Number of pages29
JournalChemical Society Reviews
Volume49
Issue number24
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 21 Dec 2020

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Chemistry

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