Exponential growth of publications on carbon nanodots by Chinese authors

Publication statistics was retrieved on carbon nanodots (C-dots) from 2004 up till 2014 using the web of Science^TM search engine. The number of publications from Chinese authors increased exponentially during this period. Till 2014 China mainland authors contributed 47% of the total publications. Publications on pharmacology and toxicology lagged far behind the publications on chemistry and material science, indicating that research is not solidly moving toward the direction of application.