Efficient full-color emitting carbon-dot-based composite phosphors by chemical dispersion

Realizing full-color emission plays a key role in exploring the luminescence mechanisms of carbon dots (CDots) and promoting the applications of CDots in light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Herein, a synthesis strategy for full-color emitting CDots was developed through the solvothermal reaction of citric acid and urea with a constant mass ratio but varying reactant concentrations in solvent. With the reactant concentrations increasing, a dual regulation mechanism including an enhanced nucleation growth process and subsequently increased C[double bond, length as m-dash]O/C[double bond, length as m-dash]N-related surface states should be responsible for the photoluminescence (PL) shift of CDots from blue to red. Relying on the hydrolyzation and condensation processes of 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane, a simple and universal method was developed by chemically dispersing the CDots into a cross-linked silica network on the surface of SiO₂ nanoparticles to produce efficient full-color emitting SiO₂/CDot composite phosphors with considerable PL quantum yields in the range of 30-60%. It was proved that the full-color emitting SiO₂/CDot composite phosphors could be flexibly applied in packaging white LEDs, releasing pure white light at the Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.33, 0.33) with a color rendering index (CRI) of 80.4 and a high color-rendering white light coming entirely from CDots with the CIE coordinates of (0.34, 0.36) and a CRI of 97.4, indicating promising application of the full-color emitting SiO₂/CDot composite phosphors in the LED field.