A novel route has been developed for surfactant-free synthesis of highly fluorescent gold quantum dots (GQDs) in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF). The as-prepared GQDs show instinctive fluorescence and good solubility in water. The formation mechanism and functionalization of GQDs were investigated by UV-vis spectra, fluorescence excitation and emission spectra, mass spectra, and TEM observation. Ligand-dependent optical properties of functionalized GQDs were found to be dramatically different. The approach provides a facile method of functionalization of bare GQDs for further applications, such as fluorescent biolabels, energy transfer units, and light-emitting devices.

A visible near-infrared chemosensor (MCy-1) for mercury ions was successfully devised and characterized. A large red-shift (122 nm) of the absorption maximum of MCy-1 was observed. An important feature for the new chemosensor is its high selectivity towards mercury ions over the other competitive species, making the "naked-eye" detection of mercury ions possible.

An intramolecular charge-transfer (ICT) compound, (TCBD)2OPV3, has been synthesized and fabricated into one-dimensional nanotubes by a reprecipitation method. The observation of SEM and TEM showed the nanotubes were formed from their zero-dimensional precursors of hollow nanospheres. Reconstruction was found to happen during the morphology transition progress. The morphology transition and reconstruction are proposed to be a "curvature strain releasing" process driven by donor-acceptor dipole-dipole interactions. An aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect was observed for (TCBD)2OPV3. Both aggregates of vesicles and nanotubes were observed to be good red emitters with near-infrared end emission of 750-850 nm, which endows the material with potential applications in the fields of optical devices, biosensors, and biolabels.