Morphology Tunable Hybrid Carbon Nanosheets with Solvatochromism

The tunable photoluminescence of carbon-based nanomaterials has received much attention for a wide range of applications. Herein, a unique, broad-solvatochromic hybrid carbon nanosheet (CNS) synthesized through the hydrothermal carbonization of molecular precursors exploiting graphene oxide as a template is reported, resulting in the formation of clusters of carbon nanorings on the surface of graphene-oxide nanosheets. Under UV and visible-light excitation, the hybrid CNS exhibits tunable emission spanning the wide range of colors in a series of solvents with different polarities. This interesting spectroscopic behavior is found to originate from hydrogen-bonding interactions between CNS and solvents, which eventually induce the morphological transition of CNS from 2D sheets to 3D crumpled morphologies, affecting the lifetimes of emissive states. This novel soft carbon nanostructure may open up a new possibility in tailoring the photophysical properties of carbon nanomaterials.