Abstract
Compared with luminescent semiconductor nanocrystals, nontoxic and metal-free carbon dots (CDs) are advantages for the significant applications in displaying and various sensors. In this paper, blue- and green-emitting CDs with high brightness and stability were created via solvothermal synthesis using m-phenylenediamine and terephthalic acid. Solvents were adjusted to control the surface of CDs attaining high brightness. The blue-emitting CDs with a photoluminescence (PL) peak wavelength of 480 nm revealed PL quantum yields (PLQYs) of 30.4% while the green-emitting one revealed a PL peak wavelength of 500 nm and a PLQY of 55.1%. The PL properties of these CDs exhibited excellent pH dependence. The effects of solvents, synthetic parameters, and pH values on the structure and PL properties of CDs were tested. These CDs were used for pH sensors and multi-stage anti-counterfeiting ink. The blue-emitting CDs revealed high stability in a broad pH range while green-emitting CDs were sensitive to aqueous solution in the pH region of 10.00–10.78 with a sensitivity of 0.99/pH and pKa value of 10.34 ± 0.51. Because of the high stability, fluorescent inks were prepared using these multi-color CDs via direct dispersion in water, in which the inks showed high stability after 6 months of storage time.
Published Version
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