Acetone-derived luminescent polymer dots: a facile and low-cost synthesis leads to remarkable photophysical properties |
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Authors: | Sebastian G. Mucha,Lucyna Firlej,Jean-Louis Bantignies,Andrzej Ż ak,Marek Samoć ,Katarzyna Matczyszyn |
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Affiliation: | Laboratoire Charles Coulomb, University of Montpellier, CNRS, Montpellier 34095 France ; Electron Microscopy Laboratory, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Wyb. Wyspiańskiego 27, 50-370 Wroclaw Poland ; Advanced Materials Engineering and Modelling Group, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Wyb. Wyspiańskiego 27, 50-370 Wrocław Poland, |
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Abstract: | Carbon-based dots have been attracting much attention as potentially superior alternatives to more conventional semiconductor nanoparticles, due to their fascinating optical properties, chemical and photochemical stability, unique environmental-friendliness, and the versatility of fabrication routes. Many commercial materials and organic compounds have been considered so far as carbon precursors but in many cases the fabrication required high-temperature conditions or led to inhomogeneous final products. Here we report on a simple low-cost synthesis of non-conjugated carbon-rich polymer dots (PDs) that uses acetone as carbon precursor. Both hydrophilic and hydrophobic fractions of PDs were obtained, with the respective average diameters of 2–4 nm and ca. 6 nm. The as-obtained PDs reveal greenish-blue photoluminescence (PL) and high quantum yields (∼5–7%) and complex kinetics of the decays with the average lifetime of ∼3.5 ns. Such luminescent acetone-derived PDs may find application in several fields, including sensing and bioimaging.Acetone-derived polymer dots (PDs) have been fabricated, according to a base-mediated synthesis route at room temperature. As-obtained hydrophobic and hydrophilic PDs revealed a strong greenish-blue emission due to the crosslink-enhanced effect. |
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