Synthesis of high-quality carbon nanodots from hydrophilic compounds: role of functional groups

Abstract

A simple one-pot hydrothermal approach has been demonstrated for the preparation of highly water soluble and photoluminescent carbon nanodots (C-dots) from low-cost organic compounds. We found that the compounds incorporating amino and carboxylic acid groups are suitable for the preparation of highly photoluminescent and water-soluble C-dots.

Synthesis of Fluorescence Carbon Nanoparticles from Ascorbic Acid

“…C-dots have been synthesized from citric acid [2], candle soot [5], soy milk [4], egg white and egg yolk [6], gum arabic [7], orange peel 8], and various amino acids [9]. Hsu et al [10] observed that functional groups of carboxylic acid and hydroxylate on the starting material of organic compounds are very important in the synthesized of C-dot. There are two methods to synthesizing C-dots, the bottom-up and the top-down methods.…”

Characterization and Analytical Separation of Fluorescent Carbon Nanodots

“…In general, the synthetic methods for C-dots include arcdischarge [2], electrochemical oxidation [3][4][5], laser ablation [6][7][8][9], hydrothermal synthesis [10][11][12][13][14][15], pyrolysis [16][17][18][19], microwave-assisted heating [20][21][22][23][24][25][26], plasma treatment [27], neutralization heating [28], and sonication treatment [29] (Scheme 1). All these synthetic methods allow, up to some extent, preparing moderately high-quality C-dots with relatively high PL performance and small size.…”

Photoluminescent Detection of Nitrite with Carbon Nanodots Prepared by Microwave-assisted Synthesis

“…The gradual decrease observed at pH 1 -3 was ascribed to the decrease in the density of deprotonated carboxylic acids functionality on the CND surface. 21 These results suggest the high dispersibility of the CNDs in a wide range of aqueous solutions.…”