One-Step and One-Precursor Hydrothermal Synthesis of Carbon Dots with Superior Antibacterial Activity.

Discovering efficient antibacterial materials is crucial in the area of increasing drug resistance. Herein, we synthesized carbon dots (C-dots) with superior antibacterial activity through a simple one-step hydrothermal method. In this method, -phenylenediamine serves as not only the carbon source but also the origin for the functional group anchored on the obtained C-dots. The antibacterial activity of the obtained C-dots was tested against and . The minimum bactericidal concentrations of the synthesized C-dots against and were 2 and 30 μg/mL, respectively, which are lower than that of previously reported C-dots. The antibacterial mechanism was investigated, and the results indicated that a large number of -NH groups on the C-dots' surface enhanced their antibacterial activity. Besides, the C-dots exhibited negligible cytotoxicity.