Molecularly designed and synthesized of bright blue nitrogen-doped lignin-derived carbon dots applied in printable anti-counterfeiting

Abstract

With the increased demand for green and sustainable development, the research of advanced biomass-based carbon dots (CDs) has drawn growing attention. Herein, a one-step green solvent integration strategy-assisted solvothermal method to preparing CDs from hydrolyzed lignin and ethylenediamine (EDA) in formamide (FA) was developed. The Schiff reaction between FA and EDA contributes to the formation of -C-N groups, further inducing the high photoluminescence quantum yield (up to 42.69 %)，obviously higher than NCDs prepared in H2O, EtOH and DMF systems (corresponding to H-NCDs, E-NCDs and D-NCDs, respectively). The analysis of structure, composition, photoluminescence (PL) behaviors and DFT calculations showed that F-NCDs have main blue fluorescent emission peak from 410 to 455 nm under 330–390 nm excitation due to the small sp2 structure in carbon core, and the large sp2 conjugated clusters and CO group related surface states leaded to the long wavelength emission. The F-NCDs with excellent optical properties was further used for preparing fluorescent film and invisible anti-counterfeiting ink, which exhibited outstanding fluorescence even at different temperatures and aging times. We provided a facile way for green facile preparation of lignin-based CDs and their sustainable anti-counterfeiting application.