Chiral carbonized polymer dots:A comprehensive review

Chirality is one of the most fundamental properties of nature and relates to the ultimate secret of the origin of life. Research on chirality has been a hot topic in many disciplines such as physics, chemistry and biology. Carbon dots, with their unique physicochemical properties and biocompatibility, have quickly become the rising star material in the family of carbon-based nanomaterials since their discovery 20 years ago. Carbonized polymer dots are an important member of the carbon dots family, which is a hot topic in the field of carbon dots research nowadays. Most of the CDs synthesized by the “bottom-up” method should be strictly regarded as CPDs, and as an important branch of carbon-based polymer dots, chiral carbon-based polymer dots (C-CPDs)have been widely used in the fields of sensing, catalysis, energy, and biomedicine. In this paper, we provide an overview of the history of chirality, basic concepts, characterization tools, and common methods for obtaining a single chiral molecule, followed by basic information on four carbon-based materials, a review of the synthesis, purification, and application of chiral carbonized polymer dots, and finally an outlook on the future of C-CPDs as a reference for researchers.