Progress and obstacles in employing carbon quantum dots for sustainable wastewater treatment

We explored the potential of carbon quantum dots (CQDs) as novel materials for wastewater treatment and their role towards environmental sustainability. The advantages of CQDs over other carbon-based materials, when synthesized using the same precursor material and for the same contaminant are discussed, enabling future researchers to choose the appropriate material. CQDs have demonstrated exceptional adaptability in various wastewater treatment, acting as efficient adsorbents for contaminants, exhibiting excellent photocatalytic properties for degradation of organic pollutants, and functioning as highly sensitive sensors for water quality monitoring. We found that bottom-up approach has better control over particle size (resulting CQDs: 1-4 nm), whereas top-down synthesis approach (resulting CQDs: 2-10 nm) have more potential for large scale applications and tunability. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) remains the most expensive characterization technique, which provides the best resolution of the CQD's surface. The study emphasizes on the environmental impact and safety considerations pertaining to CQDs by emphasizing the need for thorough toxicity evaluation, and necessary environmental precautions. The study also identifies the lacunae pertaining to critical challenges in practical implementation of CQDs, such as scalability, competition of co-existing contaminants, and stability. Finally, future research directions are proposed, advocating green synthesis approaches, tailored surface functionalization, and, lowering the overall cost for analysis, synthesis and application of CQDs.