A co-crystallization induced surface modification strategy with cyanuric acid modulates the bandgap emission of carbon dots

Zhengjie Zhou; Elena V Ushakova; Enshan Liu; Xin Bao; Di Li; Ding Zhou; Zhanao Tan; Songnan Qu; Andrey L Rogach

doi:10.1039/d0nr02639e

A co-crystallization induced surface modification strategy with cyanuric acid modulates the bandgap emission of carbon dots

Nanoscale. 2020 May 28;12(20):10987-10993. doi: 10.1039/d0nr02639e.

Authors

Zhengjie Zhou¹, Elena V Ushakova², Enshan Liu³, Xin Bao¹, Di Li⁴, Ding Zhou⁴, Zhanao Tan³, Songnan Qu⁵, Andrey L Rogach²

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Applications, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130033, PR China and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China.
² Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Centre for Functional Photonics, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, PR China and Center of Information Optical Technologies, ITMO University, Saint Petersburg 197101, Russia.
³ Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, PR China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Applications, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130033, PR China.
⁵ Joint Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education, Institute of Applied Physics and Materials Engineering, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau, PR China. songnanqu@um.edu.mo.

PMID: 32420582
DOI: 10.1039/d0nr02639e

Abstract

Along the line of offering surface modification strategies to tune emission properties of carbon dots (CDs), a co-crystallization strategy with cyanuric acid (CA) was developed to modulate the bandgap emissions of CDs and produce highly emissive solid composite CD-based materials. The original blue emission of the CDs changed to a green emission of the CDs@CA crystals, which showed a high photoluminescence quantum yield of 62% and room temperature phosphorescence. The CA molecules firmly bonded to the surface of the CDs and cannot be disrupted by polar solvents or temperature stimuli under ambient conditions, which influenced electron transitions of CDs leading to improved luminescence with excellent thermal stability both in solution and solid states.