The antimicrobial activity and application of graphene quantum dots in oral medicine

The abuse of antibiotics has been increasing bacterial resistance, which means there is a need to develop methods for the efficient detection and effective treatment of multiresistant bacterial infections. As one of graphene-based materials, graphene quantum dots (GQDs) have distinct mechanical, electrical, and optical properties, including a small size, a large surface area-to-volume ratio, biocompatibility, antimicrobial activity and tunable photoluminescence. Therefore, GQDs are expected to be widely used as antimicrobial materials, drug delivery carriers and photosensitizers in antibacterial applications. In this review, we focus on their synthesis, characteristics and antimicrobial applications in oral medicine.