Solvothermal synthesis of hydrophobic carbon dots in reversed micelles

Abstract

Synthesis of hydrophobic luminescent carbon nanostructures in non-aqueous solution has been performed. The system consisted of hexane as nonpolar “oil” phase, nonionic polyoxyethylene (4) lauryl ether (Brij L4) as a surfactant, and either water or dextran sulfate aqueous solution as a polar phase. Carbon nanodots (CND) with a particle size of 5.0 ± 0.7 nm were formed by solvothermal treatment at 180 °C of two- (hexane–Brij L4) and three-component (hexane–Brij L4–aqua solutions) systems. It was found that CND with blue-green-yellow photoluminescence (PL) with linear dependence of emission peak position on excitation wavelength and stability of PL over at least 3 weeks were formed from Brij L4. We found that using small volume of water as the third component helps to reorganize Brij L4 molecules which results in CND PL intensity increase by a factor of 1.5 and quantum yield increase from 2.0 to 2.6% compared to CND from the two-component micellar system. Replacing water with dextran sulfate solution resulted in a lower quantum yield to 2.2%. Thus, addition of small amount of water clearly shows an effect of molecular level organization on properties of CND and results in enhanced quantum yield.