Coal-based Carbon Dots (C-CDs) have gradually become a research focus due to the abundant raw materials and low preparation cost. Still, before coal-based carbon dots are widely used, a systematic biological toxicity study is the basis for the safe utilization of C-CDs. However, the level of toxicity and the mechanism of toxicity of C-CDs for organisms are still unclear. To ensure the safe utilization of C-CDs, the present study investigated C-CD nanomaterials as stressors to probe their biotoxic effects on plant, bacterial, and animal cells as well as the photocatalytic oxidative properties of C-CDs. The results showed that low concentrations of C-CDs could promote various growth indicators of wheat, and high concentrations of C-CDs had significant inhibitory effects on wheat growth; C-CDs had significant toxic effects on (S. aureus) at specific concentrations and were light-related; meanwhile, at concentrations of 1-5000 μg/mL, C-CDs were almost not toxic to HeLa cells; however, when irradiated at 365 nm, even low concentrations of C-CDs were toxic to cells by the mechanism that C-CDs could generate singlet oxygen (1O2) by photocatalytic oxidation under 365 nm excitation light, resulting in enhanced toxicity of C-CDs to cells.
Keywords: 1O2; biotoxicity; coal-based carbon dots; nano-biological effects; photocatalysis.