Nature‐Inspired Carbon Dots for Multimodal Cancer Imaging and Therapy

Carbon dots (CDs) have been recognized as a promising nanomaterial and are capable of both imaging and treating cancer due to their unique optical and intrinsic properties. CDs from natural resources have attracted growing attention among fluorescent nanomaterials because of their image‐enhancing properties, high drug loading, biocompatibility, and low toxicity. Hence, these are emerging as one of the most promising candidates for imaging‐guided theragnostic. Despite the fact that most CDs applications rely on their fluorescent properties, doping these nanomaterials with different elements has recently gained increasing attention for modifying their optoelectronic properties, introducing new optical features like phosphorescence, or multimodal imaging. So, to design the fluorescent probes, a strategy can be developed for the detection and identification of cancer cells that can act as effective therapeutic nanomaterials to achieve targeted and image‐guided cancer therapy. This review summarizes the synthesis of phosphorescent CDs from natural sources and recent advances in cancer therapy and multimodal imaging.