Resculpting carbon dots via electrochemical etching

Qingsong Yang; Spyridon Gavalas; Aleksander Ejsmont; Marta J Krysmann; Jiangtao Guo; Li Li; Xuhong Guo; Antonios Kelarakis

doi:10.1038/s41598-023-30547-6

Resculpting carbon dots via electrochemical etching

Sci Rep. 2023 Mar 6;13(1):3710. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-30547-6.

Authors

Qingsong Yang^{1

2}, Spyridon Gavalas², Aleksander Ejsmont^{2

3}, Marta J Krysmann⁴, Jiangtao Guo¹, Li Li¹, Xuhong Guo^{5

6}, Antonios Kelarakis⁷

Affiliations

¹ State-Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China.
² UCLan Research Centre for Smart Materials, School of Natural Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR12HE, UK.
³ Department of Chemical Technology, Faculty of Chemistry, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 8, 61-614, Poznan, Poland.
⁴ UCLan Research Centre for Smart Materials, School of Dentistry, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR12HE, UK.
⁵ State-Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China. guoxuhong@ecust.edu.cn.
⁶ Engineering Research Centre of Materials Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan, Shihezi University, Shihezi, China. guoxuhong@ecust.edu.cn.
⁷ UCLan Research Centre for Smart Materials, School of Natural Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR12HE, UK. akelarakis@uclan.ac.uk.

Abstract

Substantial efforts are directed into exploring the structure-properties relationships of photoluminescent Carbon dots (C-dots). This study unravels a resculpting mechanism in C-dots that is triggered by electrochemical etching and proceeds via extensive surface oxidation and carbon-carbon breakage. The process results in the gradual shrinkage of the nanoparticles and can enhance the quantum yield by more than half order of magnitude compared to the untreated analogues.