Strong Infrared Laser Ablation Produces White-Light-Emitting Materials via the Formation of Silicon and Carbon Dots in Silica Nanoparticles

Abstract

White-light-emitting materials for the applications in display and lighting have widely been prepared by the rare earth with high photoluminescent efficiency and stability, but the short resource, high cost, and serious environmental concerns are the insurmountable barriers of rare-earth-based materials. Here, we report that strong laser ablation of common organosilica colloid can produce white-light-emitting silica nanoparticles. The instant high temperature and pressure induced by strong laser simultaneously caused the reduction of partial silica and the pyrolysis of carbon chains in the interior of silica nanoparticles, in which the rapid crystallizations of the silicon and carbon vapor led to the formations of silicon dots and diamond-like carbon dots in the silica matrix. Significantly, the resultant silica nanoparticles containing different sized silicon and diamond dots exhibited a wide fluorescence spectrum to display bright white light under UV excitation. Moreover, the light emission diode (LED) device prepared by using the ablated silica nanoparticles as light source gave off the warm white light with Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE) coordinates (0.34, 0.32). The strategy reported here opens a new window to the exploration of white-light-emitting materials through the very simple, inexpensive, and environment-friendly pathway.

In situ growth of fluorescent silicon nanocrystals in a monolithic microcapsule as a photostable, versatile platform

“…Unlike reported methods for preparing SiNC that involve microwave heating, 15, 37, 38 UV irradiation 21 or instant laser ablation, 39 our one-step synthesis method can be carried out by simply mixing starting materials in alcohols at room temperature. Obtained SiNC embedded microcapsules have uniform sizes ranging between 0.1–2.0 µm (prepared so far).…”

“…33, 34, 45 However, special treatments such as calcination 46, 47 and instant ablation 39 are required for the synthesis. Based on our experiments, APTES in hydrochloric acid solutions formed ivory-white hybrid, but did not show fluorescent property (data not shown).…”

A Facile Approach to Solid-State White Emissive Carbon Dots and Their Application in UV-Excitable and Single-Component-Based White LEDs

“…In order to conquer solid-state PL quenching of CDs, several solutions have been proposed. First, solid matrices, such as starch [16], barium sulfate [17], silicates [18,19], silica gel [20], mesoporous silica [21], cage-like molecules [22], and polymers [23] were adopted to disperse CDs, so that the distances of CDs could be separated by a reasonable value from each other, thus avoiding the resonance energy transfer (RET) process and/or direct π-π interactions. Second, long-chain-contained molecules were used as carbon sources, such as poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) [24,25], KH-792 [26,27], organo-functional silane [28] and Tween 80 [29], which endowed the produced CDs by covering the long chain structures on their surface and led to effective resistance of ACQ.…”

Insight into the defect–molecule interaction through the molecular-like photoluminescence of SiO2 nanoparticles

“…In such a manner, the nanostructures become nanoemitters that can accomplish appealing and smart solutions in modern technological elds, from lighting to photovoltaics and photonics, biomedical applications, sensing and analytical measurements. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] However, it is difficult to look at the emission properties of the surface states excluding the interplay between the defects and the surroundings. If, on the one hand, the interaction with the environment can adversely affect the stability of the emitting defects, then alternatively, its controlled modulation can play an advantageous role, which allows us to make nanoparticles into real nanoprobes.…”