Determination of the antibacterial activity of various metal-doped carbon quantum dots

Jeong Hyojin (정효진); Jo Seunghyeon (조승현); Yang Seulah (양슬아); Lee Songhee (이승희); Subramani Surendran (Surendran Subramani); Nguyen duong nguyen (nguyen duong nguyen); baeckunbeom (백운범); Jung Kyu Kim (김정규); Uk Sim (Sim Uk); Sooim Shin (신수임)

doi:10.1007/s42823-024-00781-7

Determination of the antibacterial activity of various metal-doped carbon quantum dots

Carbon Letters
Abbr : Carbon Lett.
2024, 34(8), pp.2183~2193
DOI : 10.1007/s42823-024-00781-7
Publisher : Korean Carbon Society
Research Area : Natural Science > Natural Science General > Other Natural Sciences General
Received : April 11, 2024
Accepted : June 27, 2024
Published : December 5, 2024

Jeong Hyojin ¹, Jo Seunghyeon ¹, Yang Seulah ¹, Lee Songhee ¹, Subramani Surendran ², Nguyen duong nguyen ³, baeckunbeom ³, Jung Kyu Kim ³, Uk Sim ⁴, Sooim Shin ¹

¹전남대학교
²Korea Institute of Energy Technology
³성균관대학교
⁴Research Institute, NEEL Sciences, INC., Naju, Republic of Korea

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) are novel nanocarbon materials and widely used nanoparticles. They have gradually gained popularity in various fields due to their abundance, inexpensive cost, small size, ease of engineering, and distinct properties. To determine the antibacterial activity of metal-doped CQDs (metal-CQDs) containing Fe, Zn, Mn, Ni, and Co, we chose Staphylococcus aureus as a representative Gram-positive strain and Escherichia coli as a representative Gram-negative bacterial strain. Paper disc diffusion tests were conducted for the qualitative results, and a cell growth curve was drawn for quantitative results. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), and IC50 were measured from cell growth curves. As a result, all of the metal-CQDs showed toxicity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Furthermore, Gram-negative bacteria was vulnerable to metal-CQDs than Gram-positive bacteria. The toxicity differed concerning the type of metal-CQDs; Mn-CQDs exhibited the highest efficacy. Hence, this study suggested that CQDs can be used as new nanoparticles for antibiotics.

KEYWORDS

Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) Antibacterial activity Metal doping Nanoparticle

Citation status

This is the result of checking the information with the same ISSN, publication year, volume, and start page between the WoS and the KCI journals. (as of 2026-07-09)

Total Citation Counts(KCI+WOS) (16) This is the number of times that the duplicate count has been removed by comparing the citation list of WoS and KCI.

Scopus Citation Counts (1) This is the result of checking the information with the same ISSN, publication year, volume, and start page between articles in KCI and the SCOPUS journals. (as of 2025-01-01)

* References for papers published after 2025 are currently being built.

[journal] Xu X / 2004 / Electrophoretic analysis and purification of fluorescent single-walled carbon nanotube fragments / J Am Chem Soc 126(40) : 12736~12737

[journal] Wang R / 2017 / Recent progress in carbon quantum dots : synthesis, properties and applications in photocatalysis / J Mater Chem A 5(8) : 3717~3734

[journal] Kou XL / 2020 / A review : recent advances in preparations and applications of heteroatom-doped carbon quantum dots / Dalton Trans 49(21) : 6915~6938

[journal] Abd Rani U / 2020 / A review of carbon quantum dots and their applications in wastewater treatment / Adv Coll Interface Sci

[journal] Malmir S / 2020 / Antibacterial properties of a bacterial cellulose CQD-TiO2 nanocomposite / Carbohyd Polymers

[journal] Luo PG / 2013 / Carbon"quantum"dots for optical bioimaging / J Mater Chem B 1(16) : 2116~2127

[journal] Molaei MJ / 2020 / Principles, mechanisms, and application of carbon quantum dots in sensors : a review / Anal Methods 12(10) : 1266~1287

[journal] Travlou NA / 2018 / S-and N-doped carbon quantum dots : Surface chemistry dependent antibacterial activity / Carbon 135 : 104~111

[journal] Ardekani SM / 2019 / Conjugated carbon quantum dots : Potent nano-antibiotic for intracellular pathogens / J Colloid Interface Sci 552 : 378~387

[journal] Tejwan N / 2021 / Metal-doped and hybrid carbon dots : a comprehensive review on their synthesis and biomedical applications / J Control Release 330 : 132~150

[journal] Slavin YN / 2017 / Metal nanoparticles : understanding the mechanisms behind antibacterial activity / J Nanobiotechnology 15(1) : 65~

[web] Rajkumar V / 2023 / Heavy Metal Toxicity / StatPearls Publishing LLC / https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK560920/

[journal] Gadd GM / 1977 / Microorganisms and heavy metal toxicity / Microb Ecol 4 : 303~317

[journal] Kim S-H / 2011 / Antibacterial Activity of Silver-nanoparticles Against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli / Microbiol Biotechnol Lett 39(1) : 77~85

[journal] Sharma VK / 2016 / A review of the influence of treatment strategies on antibiotic resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes / Chemosphere 150 : 702~714

[journal] Rawashdeh R / 2009 / Antibacterial mechanisms of metallic nanoparticles : a review / Dyn Biochem Process Biotechnol Mol Biol 3(2) : 12~20

[journal] Jaishankar M / 2014 / Toxicity, mechanism and health effects of some heavy metals / Interdiscip Toxicol 7(2) : 60~

[journal] Kotrange H / 2021 / Metal and metal oxide nanoparticle as a novel antibiotic carrier for the direct delivery of antibiotics / Int J Mol Sci 22(17) : 9596~

[journal] Ezeuko AS / 2021 / Potentials of metallic nanoparticles for the removal of antibiotic resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes from wastewater : a critical review / J Water Proc Eng

[journal] Bing W / 2016 / Programmed bacteria death induced by carbon dots with different surface charge / Small 12(34) : 4713~4718

[journal] Chai SQ / 2021 / P-doped carbon quantum dots with antibacterial activity / Micromachines 12 : 9~

[journal] Kandasamy G / 2019 / Recent advancements in doped/co-doped carbon quantum dots for multi-potential applications / C J Carb Res 5 : 2~

[journal] Li F / 2017 / Selenium-doped carbon quantum dots for free-radical scavenging / Angewan Chem Int Ed 56(33) : 9910~9914

[journal] Lin LP / 2018 / Metal ions doped carbon quantum dots : synthesis, physicochemical properties, and their applications / Trac-Trends Analyt Chem 103 : 87~101

[journal] Zhang RZ / 2014 / Nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots : Facile synthesis and application as a"turn-off’ fluorescent probe for detection of Hg2+ ions / Biosens Bioelectron 55 : 83~90

[journal] Das P / 2018 / Zinc and nitrogen ornamented bluish white luminescent carbon dots for engrossing bacteriostatic activity and Fenton based bio-sensor / Mater Sci Eng C 88 : 115~129

[journal] Yang J / 2016 / Carbon dot-based platform for simultaneous bacterial distinguishment and antibacterial applications / ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 8(47) : 32170~32181

[web] Nguyen DN / 2022 / Machine learning assisted design and optimization of transition metal-incorporated carbon quantum dot catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction / arXiv preprint arXiv:2210.14701 / https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2210.14701

[journal] Banjara R / 2012 / Antibacterial activity of di-2-ethylaniline phosphate screened by paper disc diffusion method / J Appl Pharmaceut Sci 2(7) : 230~233

[journal] Wiegand I / 2008 / Agar and broth dilution methods to determine the minimal inhibitory concentration(MIC)of antimicrobial substances / Nat Protoc 3(2) : 163~175

[journal] Parvekar P / 2020 / The minimum inhibitory concentration(MIC)and minimum bactericidal concentration(MBC)of silver nanoparticles against Staphylococcus aureus / Biomater Investig Dent 7(1) : 105~109

[journal] Aamer A / 2014 / Minimum inhibitory and bactericidal concentrations (MIC and MBC) of honey and bee propolis against multi-drug resistant (MDR) Staphylococcus sp. isolated from bovine clinical mastitis / Alternat Integrat Med

[journal] Krishnan R / 2015 / The MIC and MBC of silver nanoparticles against Enterococcus faecalis-a facultative anaerobe / J Nanomed Nanotechnol 6(3) : 285~

[journal] Owuama CI / 2017 / Determination of minimum inhibitory concentration(MIC)and minimum bactericidal concentration(MBC)using a novel dilution tube method / Af J Microbiol Res 11(23) : 977~980

[journal] Rodríguez-Melcón C / 2021 / Minimum inhibitory concentration(MIC)and minimum bactericidal concentration(MBC)for twelve antimicrobials(biocides and antibiotics)in eight strains of Listeria monocytogenes / Biology 11(1) : 46~

[journal] Campbell J / 2010 / High-throughput assessment of bacterial growth inhibition by optical density measurements / Curr Prot Chem Biol 2(4) : 195~208

[journal] He Y / 2016 / The changing 50% inhibitory concentration(IC50)of cisplatin : a pilot study on the artifacts of the MTT assay and the precise measurement of density-dependent chemoresistance in ovarian cancer / Oncotarget 7(43) : 70803~

[journal] Sebaugh J / 2011 / Guidelines for accurate EC50/IC50 estimation / Pharm Stat 10(2) : 128~134

[journal] Zhang G / 2019 / A general route via formamide condensation to prepare atomically dispersed metal–nitrogen–carbon electrocatalysts for energy technologies / Energy Environ Sci 12(4) : 1317~1325

[journal] Zhuo S / 2019 / Facile fabrication of fluorescent Fe-doped carbon quantum dots for dopamine sensing and bioimaging application / Analyst 144(2) : 656~662

[journal] Kapoor G / 2017 / Action and resistance mechanisms of antibiotics : a guide for clinicians / J Anaesthesiol Clin Pharmacol 33(3) : 300~305

[journal] Kohanski MA / 2007 / A common mechanism of cellular death induced by bactericidal antibiotics / Cell 130(5) : 797~810

[journal] Kohanski MA / 2010 / How antibiotics kill bacteria : from targets to networks / Nat Rev Microbiol 8(6) : 423~435

[journal] Raynor BD / 1997 / Penicillin and ampicillin / Prim Care Update OB/GYNS 4(4) : 147~152

[book] Gottlieb D / 2013 / Antibiotics: volume I mechanism of action / Springer

[book] Walsh C / 2020 / Antibiotics : challenges, mechanisms, opportunities / John Wiley and Sons

[journal] Emami-Karvani Z / 2011 / Antibacterial activity of ZnO nanoparticle on gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria / Afr J Microbiol Res 5(12) : 1368~1373

[journal] Dizaj SM / 2014 / Antimicrobial activity of the metals and metal oxide nanoparticles / Mater Sci Eng, C 44 : 278~284

[journal] Azam A / 2012 / Antimicrobial activity of metal oxide nanoparticles against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria : a comparative study / Internat J Nanomed

[journal] Rohde M / 2019 / The Gram-positive bacterial cell wall / Microbiol Spect

[journal] Aasland S / 1993 / Oxidation-states of transition-metals in Zblan / J Non-Cryst Solids 161 : 177~181

[journal] Schmid HK / 2006 / Oxidation states of Mn and Fe in various compound oxide systems / Micron 37(5) : 426~432

[journal] Van Gaal H / 1982 / Trends in redox potentials of transition metal complexes / Coord Chem Rev 47(1–2) : 41~54

[journal] Dsouza SD / 2021 / The importance of surface states in N-doped carbon quantum dots / Carbon 183 : 1~11

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.

KJCKorea
Journal Central

Carbon Letters 2025 KCI Impact Factor : 0.73 KCI-WoS Impact Factor : 6.26

Determination of the antibacterial activity of various metal-doped carbon quantum dots

ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS

Citation status

This is the result of checking the information with the same ISSN, publication year, volume, and start page between the WoS and the KCI journals. (as of 2026-07-09)

Total Citation Counts(KCI+WOS) (16) This is the number of times that the duplicate count has been removed by comparing the citation list of WoS and KCI.

Scopus Citation Counts (1) This is the result of checking the information with the same ISSN, publication year, volume, and start page between articles in KCI and the SCOPUS journals. (as of 2025-01-01)

* References for papers published after 2025 are currently being built.

Carbon Letters 2025 KCI Impact Factor : 0.73 KCI-WoS Impact Factor : 6.26

Determination of the antibacterial activity of various metal-doped carbon quantum dots

ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS

Statistics

Tools

Issue List

Citation status

KCI Citation Counts (0)

WoS Citation Counts (16) This is the result of checking the information with the same ISSN, publication year, volume, and start page between the WoS and the KCI journals. (as of 2026-07-09)

Total Citation Counts(KCI+WOS) (16) This is the number of times that the duplicate count has been removed by comparing the citation list of WoS and KCI.

Scopus Citation Counts (1) This is the result of checking the information with the same ISSN, publication year, volume, and start page between articles in KCI and the SCOPUS journals. (as of 2025-01-01)

REFERENCES (54) * References for papers published after 2025 are currently being built.

Search PDF

Citation

This is the result of checking the information with the same ISSN, publication year, volume, and start page between the WoS and the KCI journals. (as of 2026-07-09)

* References for papers published after 2025 are currently being built.