Title

Efficient Fluorescence Quenching in Carbon Dots by Surface-Doped Metals - Disruption of Excited State Redox Processes and Mechanistic Implications

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2012

Publication Source

Langmuir

Abstract

The carbon dots in this study were small carbon nanoparticles with the particle surface functionalized by oligomeric poly(ethylene glycol) diamine molecules. Upon photoexcitation, the brightly fluorescent carbon dots in aqueous solution served the function of excellent electron donors to reduce platinum(IV) and gold(III) compounds into their corresponding metals to be deposited on the dot surface. The deposited metals even in very small amounts were found to have dramatic quenching effects on the fluorescence emission intensities, but essentially no effects on the observed fluorescence decays. The obviously exclusive near-neighbor static quenching could be attributed to the disruption of electron–hole radiative recombinations (otherwise responsible for the fluorescence emissions in carbon dots). The results provide important evidence for the availability of photogenerated electrons that could be harvested for productive purposes, which in turn supports the current mechanistic framework on fluorescence emission and photoinduced redox properties of carbon dots.

Inclusive pages

16141–16147

ISBN/ISSN

0743-7463

Comments

Permission documentation is on file.

Publisher

American Chemical Society

Volume

28

Peer Reviewed

yes

Issue

46


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