Controllable Photoluminescent and Nonlinear Optical Properties of Polymerizable Carbon Dots and Their Arbitrary Copolymerized Gel Glasses

Abstract

In this work, an efficient method is developed to prepare silane‐functionalized red‐emissive carbon dots and carbon dots gel glasses with arbitrary loading fraction (0–100%). The as‐prepared materials possess strong photoluminescence and significant third‐order nonlinear optical performances. The optical properties can be tuned by either changing solvents and pH of the solution or adjusting the loading fractions of carbon dots in gel glasses. In particular, the photoluminescence of the carbon dots and their polymerized glasses can be linearly modulated from yellow to red emission by increasing the loading fraction of carbon dots or the polarity of solvent. It is also found that the chemical copolymerization leads to superior optical properties of gel glasses to that of the carbon dots solution, because the copolymerization endows stable immobilization of carbon dots in a rigid matrix. This study provides a feasible method to prepare optoelectronic hybrid materials and devices.

Ultralow Threshold Lasing from Carbon Dot–Ormosil Gel Hybrid-Based Planar Microcavity

“…Comparing with these common solid materials, sol-gel glasses derived from organically modified silicates (ormosil) have attracted increasing attention for embedding functional dopants in various optical materials and devices due to their excellent performance, including simple preparation process, adequate resistance to harsh conditions (high temperature, corrosion, etc. ), high transmittance in the visible (Vis) and near infrared (NIR) region, long-term stability, as well as excellent mechanical properties [ 20 , 21 ].…”

One‐Step Synthesis of Silica‐Coated Carbon Dots with Controllable Solid‐State Fluorescence for White Light‐Emitting Diodes

“…To address this issue, various methods, e.g., grafting by polymer chains, modifying with surfactants on the surfaces of CDots, have been exploited to enhance CDots loading fraction and improve the doping homogeneity. Especially, the silane‐functionalized CDots (SiCDots) can not only retain their optical properties in the solid state, but also further produce hydrolysis and cocondensation reactions with other silanes to precisely control their loading fraction from 0% to 100% in the gel glass composites . However, increasing the SiCDots loading fraction in those gel glasses can only result in a slight emission shift due to the self‐polarization .…”

“…Especially, the silane‐functionalized CDots (SiCDots) can not only retain their optical properties in the solid state, but also further produce hydrolysis and cocondensation reactions with other silanes to precisely control their loading fraction from 0% to 100% in the gel glass composites . However, increasing the SiCDots loading fraction in those gel glasses can only result in a slight emission shift due to the self‐polarization . In fact, controlling the composite morphologies, structures, and composition was ever reported to successfully adjust the emission of the SiC‐dots/SiO 2 red‐shift from blue to tan, by necessary calcining process …”

Citric Acid Derived Carbon Dots, the Challenge of Understanding the Synthesis-Structure Relationship

“…As a metal-free optical material, CDs are also environmentally friendly and represent a promising alternative to conventional metal-based semiconductors and rare elements. CDs could, therefore, potentially provide outstanding advantages in various fields, such as sensing [6,7], bioimaging [8], catalysis [9], lighting and displaying [10,11], lasering [12][13][14], etc.…”