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Investigation on synthesis and luminescent properties of red-emitting carbon dots chemically functionalized by branched-polyethylenimine

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Abstract

Carbon dots (C-dots) have been known as a type of important luminescent materials in the lighting field due to their advantages such as low cost, environmental benign, and broad color-tuning range. However, the C-dots often face the aggregation-induced photoluminescence quenching (AIPLQ) and film-formation instability problems, thereby causing the limitations of their application. In this work, we have prepared the C-dots with branched-polyethylenimine chemically functionalized on the particles’ surfaces. The TEM results show that the diameter of the obtained C-dots is distributed mainly in the range of 4–7 nm, with the average diameter of 5.7 nm and lattice fringe spacing of 0.19 nm related to the (100) plane. The thermogravimetry analysis reveals that the C-dots experience three stages of weight losses. The UV–Visible absorption spectra results show that there are two absorption bands at 340 nm and 505 nm in the C-dots in the form of the aqueous solution and solid-state films, which are assigned to the π–π interactions and the carbogenic core of the C-dots. In addition, the PL results reveal that the C-dots can overcome the AIPLQ and show a highly efficient red luminescence in the solid-state form, with a maximum PL quantum yield of ~ 23% under 505 nm excitation. At last, we design and achieve an excellent C-dots-based film by dealing the C-dots with a solution spin-coating method, and demonstrate the potential application of the obtained C-dots for LED device.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the Jinhua Science and Technology Bureau Project (Project No. 2020-4-189) and the Zhejiang Province Public Welfare Project (Project No. LGG19B030002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Pharmacy, Jinhua Polytechnic, Jinhua, 321007, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China

    Haihua He, Yufen Zhou, Feiyong Yang, Xiaohui Luo, Zhunian Jin & Zhenfang Li

  2. Sichuan University, Huanlu Nan No. 21, Chengdu, 610041, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China

    Min Jin

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  1. Haihua He
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Contributions

ZY: methodology, validation, formal analysis, writing-draft, writing-review and editing. HH, LZ, and JM: conceptualization, formal analysis, writing-original draft, writing-review and editing, supervision. YF, LX, JZ: methodology, validation. HH: project administration, funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Haihua He, Zhenfang Li or Min Jin.

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He, H., Zhou, Y., Yang, F. et al. Investigation on synthesis and luminescent properties of red-emitting carbon dots chemically functionalized by branched-polyethylenimine. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 33, 23418–23426 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-09102-y

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