Photoexcited State Properties and Antibacterial Activities of Carbon Dots Relevant to Mechanistic Features and Implications

Abstract Carbon dots (CDots) are strongly absorptive over the visible spectrum, with the effective photon-harvesting driving rich excited state processes and properties. In this work, spectroscopic probing of these processes and properties is coupled with the evaluation of the photoinduced bactericidal function of CDots, aimed toward making correlations among the findings from the former and those from the latter on the inactivation of bacterial pathogens. Within the general mechanistic framework for CDots, the observed effective and efficient antibacterial activities of the CDots under visible light are attributed to major contributions by the initially photo-generated electrons and holes that are trapped at passivated surface defect sites of the dots, in addition to the traditional reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced in the emissive excited states from the recombination of the redox pairs. Such major contributions to the inactivation of the bacteria by the separated redox species in CDots can not be quenched by ROS scavengers commonly used in the study of photodynamic effects with classical molecular photosensitizers, thus making light-activated CDots uniquely potent antimicrobial agents. The characteristic features of photoexcited CDots and their related mechanistic implications are discussed in reference to the similar behaviors and mechanistic model of conventional semiconductor quantum dots.