Aggregation-induced
emission has provided fluorescence enhancement
strategies for metal nanoclusters. However, the morphology of the
aggregated nanoclusters tended to be irregular due to the random aggregated
route, which would result in the formation of an unstable product.
Herein, copper nanoclusters were directly synthesized by using
l
-cysteine as both the reducing and protection ligand. Initially,
the structure of the product was irregular. Furthermore, Ce
3+
was introduced to re-arrange the aggregates through a crosslinking
avenue. It was interesting to find that well-ordered three-dimensional
nanomaterials with mesoporous sphere structures were obtained after
re-aggregation. On the basis of the stability test at a relatively
high temperature and the light-emitting diode fabrication investigation,
it revealed that the regulated product demonstrated more promising
stability and color purity for practical applications than the random
aggregated product with irregular structures.