Figure 13.

Carbon nanodots in materials applications. (a) Schematic for a zinc oxide (ZnO) and carbon nanodot (CQD) antimicrobial bracket coating for orthodontics materials. The schematic displays the reactive oxygen species (ROS, •O₂⁻, •OH) generated by ultraviolet (λ < 380 nm) activation of the ZnO coating, enhanced both by the up-conversion properties (λ_ex > 550 nm → λ_em < 380 nm) and improved separation of electron/hole (e⁻/h⁺) pairs resulting from carbon dot incorporation. (b) Antibacterial efficiency of the bracket coatings under natural light irradiation for multiple bacterial strains; * p < 0.01. For additional details regarding the reported studies, the reader is referred to Table 2 of the main text. Permissions: Reprinted from Chemical Physics Letters, 706, Zhang, J. et al., “Enhanced antibacterial properties of the bracket under natural light via decoration with ZnO/carbon quantum dots composite coating”, 702–707, Copyright © 2018, with permission from Elsevier [40].