White luminescent single-crystalline chlorinated graphene quantum dots.

Abstract

A new class of white luminescent materials, white-light-emitting graphene quantum dots (WGQDs), have attracted increasing attention because of their unique features and potential applications. Herein, we designed and synthesized a novel WGQDs via a solvothermal molecular fusion strategy. The modulation of chlorine doping amount and reaction temperature gives the WGQDs a single-crystalline structure and bright white fluorescence properties. In particular, the WGQDs also exhibit novel and robust white phosphorescence performance for the first time. An optimum fluorescence quantum yield of WGQDs is 34%, which exceeds the majority of reported WGQDs and other white luminescent materials. The WGQDs display broad-spectrum absorption within almost the entire visible light region, broad full width at half maximum and extend their phosphorescence emission to the entire white long-wavelength region. This unique dual-mode optical characteristic of the WGQDs originates from the synergistic effect of low-defect and high chlorine-doping in WGQDs and enlarges their applications in white light emission devices, cell nuclei imaging, and information encryption. Our finding provides us an opportunity to design and construct more advanced multifunctional white luminescent materials based on metal-free carbon nanomaterials.