A universal polymer precursor strategy for precise synthesis of uniform hairy carbon dots and polymer dots

Abstract

A polymer precursor strategy was developed towards the precise synthesis of hairy carbon dots (C-dots). The strategy was achieved by: (i) synthesis of a 6-arm star-like core–shell polymer of PMAA_core-b-PMMA_corona (PMAA: poly(methacrylic acid), PMMA: poly(methyl methacrylate)) by sequential atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) and (ii) one-to-one transformation of the star-like copolymer into C-dots, P-dots-CL and P-dots-EL by co-carbonization, chemical or electrostatic cross-linking of the inner PMAA blocks with difunctional amine compounds like ethylenediamine, respectively. All the C-dots and P-dots showed excitation-dependent fluorescent emissions with intensities following the order of C-dots > P-dots-CL > P-dots-EL. The polymer precursor strategy showed good universality witnessed by its ideal compatibility with various difunctional amino compounds for co-carbonization.