Electrochemical Tuning of Amorphous Carbon Amount and Surface Oxidation Degree of Graphitic Quantum Dots

Graphitic quantum dots (GQDs) have attracted much interesting of researchers because of its amazing optical properties and its ability to be used for many applications. Now, there are various methods have been reported for preparation of GQDs. Among them electrochemical method is simple technology, while it can afford various conditions to realize controllable prepared of GQDs. In this study, we tuned the PH values of electrolyte to probe the relationship of electrolyte environment and GQDs' optical properties as well as to seek the effective controllable condition for GQDs' preparation. It is found that the density of oxygen-related functional groups and the amount of amorphous carbon of GQDs were related to the PH values of electrolyte. The amount of amorphous carbon decreased as the PH values increased in the region of 6.6 to 7.1. Although, the positions of photoluminescence (PL) peak almost no changed of GQDs with different density of oxygen-related functional groups, GQDs with the lowest amount of amorphous carbon achieved the maximum PL intensity. Therefore, controlling amorphous carbon's amount by electrochemical method may afford a new direction to improve the fluorescence (FL) emission of GQDs.