A comprehensive review of the importance of thermal activation in the production of carbon dots and the potential for their use in the bioenergy industry.

The structure, thermal analysis, optical properties, and emission mechanism of fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) have been improved as a result of a vast quantity of new study. Unlike quantum confinement outcomes in quantum dots, CDs usually suffer from intricate optical characteristics coming from a variety of raw materials and synthesis processes based on thermal treatment. The thermal-treatment-based synthesis of CDs and their application in bioenergy systems are discussed in this review. Heating rate, gas atmosphere, and heating regime are among the parameters used in the thermal study of carbon nanomaterials, allowing researchers to investigate the necessary characteristics for applications such as biomass production, photo-catalysis, biodiesel, optoelectronics, and photo-thermal energy conversion. In general, this review proposes CDs as a unified definition of reported carbon nanomaterials, summarises the thermal properties of CDs derived from the formation process, optical properties, and redox characteristics of CDs, and illustrates energy conversion applications, as well as the related mechanistic framework and relationships. The thermal analysis CDs' unique properties may bring up new opportunities and difficulties in a variety of fields. This review also covers energy conversion applications, including the framework and linkages of the mechanisms involved. It is thought that the use of CDs constitutes an advance in the core capabilities of thermal analysis and may provide new perspectives and difficulties in a broader range of applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]