Abstract
In recent years, the scientific community has given much interest to graphene as a material because of its good mechanical, thermal and electrical properties. Nevertheless, the lack of a bandgap in graphene limits its optical and optoelectronic applications. To tackle this problem, size reduction, a popular technique for bandgap engineering, has been used. Thus, we shine our interest in graphene quantum dots (GQDs). GQDs synthesis has been mostly described via top-down methods (lithography, hydrothermal and electrochemical approaches).1 Though cheap and efficient, these methods do not allow for precise control of the size, shape and edges of the GQDs. This is where bottom-up approaches, especially the ones borrowing known reactions from organic chemistry, come in handy.2 Our group has previously reported single-photon emission from functionalized bottom-up synthesized GQDs.3 We wish to improve our understanding of GQDs optical properties. For this purpose, we have synthesized nanoparticles having the same number of hybridized sp2 carbons but arranged in different shapes (Figure 1). Besides modifying the optical properties, we also aim to improve the solubility of the GQDs by changing the functional groups at the edge of the nanoparticle. An improved solubility should simplify the study of individualized nanoparticles.References :[1] Yang, J.-S., Martinez, D. A. & Chiang, W.-H. Synthesis, Characterization and Applications of Graphene Quantum Dots in Recent Trends in Nanomaterials: Synthesis and Properties, Khan, Z. H., Springer Singapore, (2017).[2] Müller, M., Kübel, C. & Müllen, K. Giant Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons. Chem. Eur. J. 4, 2099–2109 (1998).[3] Zhao, S. et al. Single photon emission from graphene quantum dots at room temperature. Nat. Commun. 9, 1–5 (2018). Figure 1
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call