Red, green, and blue light-emitting carbon dots prepared from o-phenylenediamine

Carbon dots (CDs), as the most important type of carbon-based material, have been widely used in many fields because of their excellent properties. In particular, multicolor fluorescent CDs with high photoluminescence quantum yield are the focus of active research. Herein, red, green and blue CDs (RGB CDs) were successfully synthesized by a solvothermal method from o-phenylenediamine under different reaction conditions. The RGB-CDs have stable optical properties and significant photoluminescence characteristics. Structural and elemental analyses propose a conjugated structure and the surface state of the CDs as the main causes for the different color emission of RGB-CDs. In addition, a white fluorescent CD solution was prepared by mixing these multicolor fluorescent CDs in appropriate proportions.