Carbon Nanotubes, Graphene, and Carbon Dots as Electrochemical Biosensing Composites.

Carbon nanomaterials (CNMs) have been extensively used as electrochemical sensing composites due to their interesting chemical, electronic, and mechanical properties giving rise to increased performance. Due to these materials' unknown long-term ecological fate, care must be given to make their use tractable. In this review, the design and use of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene, and carbon dots (CDs) as electrochemical sensing electrocatalysts applied to the working electrode surface are surveyed for various biosensing applications.

Size-Dependent Photocatalytic Activity of Carbon Dots with Surface-State Determined Photoluminescence.

Carbon dots (CDs) were synthesized by a microwave-mediated method and separated by size exclusion chromatography into three different size fractions. There was no correlation of the size with photoluminescence (PL) emission wavelength, which shows that the PL mechanism is not quantum-size dependent. UV/vis absorption and diffuse reflectance spectroscopies showed that the light absorption properties as well as the band gap of the CDs changed with the size of the particle.

Facile Synthesis of "Boron-Doped" Carbon Dots and Their Application in Visible-Light-Driven Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Dyes.

Carbon dots (C-dots) were facilely fabricated via a hydrothermal method and fully characterized. Our study shows that the as-synthesized C-dots are nontoxic, negatively charged spherical particles (average diameter 4.7 nm) with excellent water dispersion ability.

Direct conjugation of distinct carbon dots as Lego-like building blocks for the assembly of versatile drug nanocarriers.

As a promising drug nanocarrier, carbon dots (CDs) have exhibited many excellent properties. However, some properties such as bone targeting and crossing the blood-brain barrier (BBB) only apply to a certain CD preparation with limited drug loading capacity. Therefore, it is significant to conjugate distinct CDs to centralize many unique properties on the novel drug nanocarrier.

Cytotoxicity of NiO and Ni(OH) Nanoparticles Is Mediated by Oxidative Stress-Induced Cell Death and Suppression of Cell Proliferation.

The use of nanomaterial-based products continues to grow with advancing technology. Understanding the potential toxicity of nanoparticles (NPs) is important to ensure that products containing them do not impose harmful effects to human or environmental health. In this study, we evaluated the comparative cytotoxicity between nickel oxide (NiO) and nickel hydroxide (Ni(OH)) in human bronchoalveolar carcinoma (A549) and human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cell lines.

A Prussian Blue ZnO Carbon Nanotube Composite for Chronoamperometrically Assaying HO in BT20 and 4T1 Breast Cancer Cells.

A Prussian Blue (PB) zinc oxide carbon nanotube sensing composite was developed for the rapid assaying of HO generated from BT20 and 4T1 breast cancer cells, important for elucidating mechanisms governing apoptosis of these cell lines. The combination of HO's transient nature along with matrix effects makes monitoring this molecule in biological samples a challenge. The standard addition method (SAM) was coupled with chronoamperometric sensing (CA) to overcome these obstacles.

Tryptophan carbon dots and their ability to cross the blood-brain barrier.

Drug traversal across the blood-brain barrier has come under increasing scrutiny recently, particularly concerning the treatment of sicknesses, such as brain cancer and Alzheimer's disease. Most therapies and medicines are limited due to their inability to cross this barrier, reducing treatment options for maladies affecting the brain. Carbon dots show promise as drug carriers, but they experience the same limitations regarding crossing the blood-brain barrier as many small molecules do.

Carbon Nitride Dots: A Selective Bioimaging Nanomaterial.

In contrast to the recent immense attention in carbon nitride quantum dots (CNQDs) as a heteroatom-doped carbon quantum dot (CQD), their biomedical applications have not been thoroughly investigated. Targeted cancer therapy is a prominently researched area in the biomedical field. Here, the ability of CNQDs as a selective bioimaging nanomaterial was investigated to assist targeted cancer therapy.

Photoluminescent Carbon Dots: A Mixture of Heterogeneous Fractions.

Photoluminescent carbon dots (CDs) fractions have been isolated from a gel-like material (GM), which was synthesized using a convenient one-step solvothermal route. In terms of purification, size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and dialysis were compared with acetone wash, which revealed the advantage of acetone wash. The pre-purified GM with acetone wash (A-GM) was further isolated by the reversed-phase preparative thin layer chromatography (TLC) with acetonitrile-water mixture (7 : 3; v /v ) as the developing solvent.

Substantially enhanced rate capability of lithium storage in NaTiO with self-doping and carbon-coating.

NaTiO (NTO) has recently been reported for lithium ion storage and showed very promising results. In this work, we report substantially enhanced rate capability in NTO nanowires by Ti(iii) self-doping and carbon-coating. Ti(iii) doping and carbon coating were found to work in synergy to increase the electrochemical performances of the material.

Electrochemical Detection of Acetaminophen with Silicon Nanowires.

Acetaminophen (APAP) is an antipyretic, analgesic agent, the overdose of which during medical treatment poses a risk for liver failure. Hence, it is important to develop methods to monitor physiological APAP levels to avoid APAP. Here, we report an efficient, selective electrochemical APAP sensor made from depositing silicon nanowires (SiNWs) onto glassy carbon electrodes (GCEs).