0-D Carbon Materials

Solar evaporation using photothermal materials is an environmentally friendly and feasible technology for freshwater production. In this system, the solar flux is absorbed and converted into heat by the photothermal materials. The generated heat is used to evaporate water and produce clean water. By using photothermal materials, the performance of solar evaporation could improve significantly. Recently, carbon dots (CDs) have emerged with great interest to be applied in this application. CDs have many desirable properties, such as highly photothermal conversion (more than 90%), tunable structure and surface functionalization, easy to produce and abundant raw materials that meet the requirements for this application.

Carbon dots (CD) are nanoparticles below 10 nm in size with good photoluminescence properties. Carbon Dots has the advantages of high photostability, can absorb UV and infrared rays, soluble in water, low toxicity, good biocompatibility and easy to modify the surface structure. The superior properties of Carbon Dots allow Carbon Dots to be applied in biomedicine, optoelectronic devices, and catalysts. Curcumin is a polyphenolic compound in turmeric which is difficult to dissolve in water, thus making curcumin have low biocompatibility. Though curcumin is a compound that has many benefits such as anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-cancer and anti-virus. To overcome this problem, in this study, a carbon point synthesis was carried out from the base material in the form of curcumin to increase its biocompatibility. CD which is synthesized from curcumin and urea by solvothermal or hydrothermal method is expected to improve its optical properties. Curcumin contains Keto-enol tautomer which can affect changes in its optical properties. The curcumin-derived CD material has great potential for biomedical applications such as photothermal agents, biolabeling, drug delivery and anti-virus.

Recent Publications:

1. Recent advances and rational design strategies of carbon dots towards highly efficient solar evaporation, Nanoscale 13, 7523-7532 (2021).