Highly stable carbon nanodot-based phosphor as a color converter for WLED

Abstract

The core bottleneck problem of solid-state carbon nanodots (CDs) is aggregation-induced luminescence quenching (AIQ) effects. Herein, we report an approach to obtain a strong fluorescence emission CD@monodisperse mesoporous silica nanosphere-stellate (CD@MSNS) hybrid phosphor with highly concentrated emitting centers, where the CDs are effectively attached to the MSNS particles through physical adsorption and hydrogen bonding. The effective adsorption between CDs and MSNS could increase the distance between CDs, which could steadily hinder the AIQ effect of CDs. The highlight of this method is to prevent the aggregation of CDs upon drying. The obtained CD@MSNS hybrid phosphor possesses excellent thermal-stability and photostability. A white light-emitting diode (WLED) with a luminous efficiency of 40.6 lm/W, CIE coordinates of (0.3003, 0.3731), and color rendering index (CRI) of 80.9 is fabricated based on monochromatic converter of the yellow CD@MSNS hybrid phosphor. This study provides a new vision to solve the AIQ effects of quantum nanodots and offers a simple method for CDs application in WLED.