Lakhasly

C-Dots, possessing a tunable structure, can be tailored for diverse applications through core modification and surface functionalization using carefully chosen precursors. Plant-based sources, rich in phytochemicals, are commonly used, imparting inherited functional groups and heteroatoms (Pansari et al. 2023; Zeng et al. 2021). Flowers, abundant in flavonoids, polyphenols, terpenoids, and various other compounds (Abbas et al. 2021; Deepthi et al. 2023), are ideal precursors, yielding self-doped, self-passivated C-Dots containing heteroatoms (N, P, S) and surface groups (amino, carboxy, hydroxy). Further modification is possible via covalent (amide coupling, silylation, esterification, etc.) or non-covalent (π-interactions, complexation, electrostatic interactions, etc.) methods (Yan et al. 2018; John et al. 2021; Park et al. 2016). Covalent modification particularly allows linking C-Dots to other nanoparticles, metal ions, or biomolecules, expanding their applications. This study focuses on designing C-Dots with specific recognition groups and investigating their optical properties.

With C-Dots' tunable structure, the features of C-Dots
can be tailored for specific applications via the modification
at the core and/or surface functionalization by careful
selection of precursors. Plants-based carbon sources having
different phytochemicals are usually used as precursors
to generate C-Dots with inherited functional groups/
heteroatom in the core structure (Pansari et al. 2023). The
structural diversity of C-Dots depends upon the primary
and secondary metabolite constituents of such precursors
(Zeng et al. 2021). Flowers are among those natural sources
that are rich in flavonoids, polyphenolic compounds, terpenoids,
nitrogen-containing alkaloids, and sulfur-containing
compounds (Abbas et al. 2021; Deepthi et al. 2023). The
selection of flowers as the precursor for the C-Dots synthesis
would lead to the formation of self-doped, self-passivated
C-Dots consisting of hetero atoms (N, P, S, etc.) in the carbon
ring and amino, carboxy, and hydroxy, etc. groups on
the surface (Zeng et al. 2021). These self-passivated C-Dots
can further be modified via covalent, non-covenant interactions
(Yan et al. 2018). The covalent modification can be
done via amide coupling reactions, silylation, and other reactions
including esterification, sulfonylation, and copolymerization,
etc. whereas the noncovalent modifications include
π-interactions, complexation/chelation, electrostatic interactions,
etc. (John et al. 2021). The covalent modification
provides an effective bridge to link C-Dots with the other
nanoparticles, metal ions, or biological molecules which
diversifies the application area of C-Dots (Park et al. 2016).
In the proposed study, we aimed to design C-Dots
with specific recognition groups and explore their optical