One-step synthesis of orange–red emissive carbon dots: photophysical insight into their excitation wavelength-independent and dependent luminescence

Abstract

A low-temperature method was developed to synthesize orange–red luminescence phosphor-doped carbon dots (CDs) without complicated purification procedures. These CDs showed excitation wavelength-independent narrow emission (photo-luminescence quantum yield, Φ_f ∼ 12 to 22%) with single exponential time-resolved decay in weakly polar/non-polar solvents, indicating the presence of one kind of chromophore. In contrast, the same CDs showed excitation wavelength-dependent broad emission (Φ_f ∼ 1 to 8%) with multi-exponential fluorescence decay in polar solvents. These CDs exhibited poor solubility in polar solvents, resulting in CD aggregates contributed by excitation wavelength-dependent weak luminescence. The CDs embedded in polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) polymer film displayed bright orange–red fluorescence under UV 365 nm illumination, indicating their potential application in solid-state luminescence. Further, an analytical method was developed for the naked-eye detection of trifluoracetic acid (red emission) and triethylamine (green emission) under UV 365 nm illumination with reversible two switch-mode luminescence. Additionally, this efficient orange–red luminescence of CDs was utilized for possible bioimaging applications with negligible cytotoxicity in 3T3 mouse fibroblast cells.