Carbon Dots and Their Polymeric Nanocomposites

Currently, carbon dots (CDs) are emerging as one of the brightest and youngest carbon nanomaterials for intensive research in the domain of materials science. They have great potential to be used in a broad field of applications such as optoelectronic, energy, biomedical, sensors, catalysis, etc. owing to their excellent aqueous dispersibility, functionality, biocompatibility, and ease of preparation from different carbon-based resources. All these favorable attributes, along with large numbers of polar surface functional groups, make CDs one of the potential nanomaterials to fabricate polymer nanocomposites, which provide a dramatic improvement in performance as well as offers a new set of properties. These CD/polymer nanocomposites are widely used in optoelectronics, biomedical, catalysis, and energy applications. Therefore this chapter provides a decent and updated coverage on the fabrication, characterization, properties, and applications of CD/polymer nanocomposites. The chapter also presents a comprehensive account on synthesis, structural details, properties, and application, of different CDs.