In recent years, two-dimensional atomic-level thickness crystal materials have attracted widespread interest such as graphene, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), silicene, germanium, black phosphorus (BP), transition metal sulfides and so on.

The properties of propagating surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) along one-dimensional metal structures have been investigated for more than 10 years and are now well understood. Because of the high confinement of electromagnetic energy, propagating SPPs have been considered to represent one of the best potential ways to construct next-generation circuits that use light to overcome the speed limit of electronics. Many basic plasmonic components have already been developed. In this review, researches on plasmonic waveguides are reviewed from the perspective of plasmonic circuits. Several circuit components are constructed to demonstrate the basic function of an optical digital circuit. In the end of this review, a prototype for an SPP-based nanochip is proposed, and the problems associated with building such plasmonic circuits are discussed. A plasmonic chip that can be practically applied is expected to become available in the near future.

Carbon dots (CDs) are known as the rising star of carbon-based nanomaterials and, by virtue of their unique structure and fascinating properties, they have attracted considerable interest in different fields such as biological sensing, drug delivery, photodynamic therapy, photocatalysis, and solar cells in recent years. Particularly, the outstanding electronic and optical properties of the CDs have attracted increasing attention in biomedical and photocatalytic applications owing to their low toxicity, biocompatibility, excellent photostability, tunable fluorescence, outstanding efficient up-converted photoluminescence behavior, and photo-induced electron transfer ability. This article reviews recent progress on the synthesis routes and optical properties of CDs as well as biomedical and photocatalytic applications. Furthermore, we discuss an outlook on future and potential development of the CDs based biosensor, biological dye, biological vehicle, and photocatalysts in this booming research field.