Use of Interfacial Interactions and Complexation of Carbon Dots to Construct Ultra-Robust and Efficient Photothermal...

Solar energy conversion technologies, particularly solar-driven photothermal conversion, are both clean and manageable. Although much progress has been made in designing solar-driven photothermal materials, significant challenges remain, not least the photobleaching of organic dyes. To tackle these issues, micro-carbonized polysaccharide chains, with carbon dots (CDs) suspended from the chains, are conceived, just like grapes or tomatoes hanging from a vine. Carbonization of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) produces just such a structure (termed CMC-g-CDs), which is used to produce an ultra-stable, robust, and efficient solar-thermal film by interfacial interactions within the CMC-g-CDs. The introduction of the CDs into the matrix of the photothermal material effectively avoided the problem of photobleaching. Manipulating the interfacial interactions (such as electrostatic interactions, van der Waals interactions, π-π stacking, and hydrogen bonding) between the CDs and the polymer chains markedly enhances the mechanical properties of the photothermal film. The CMC-g-CDs are complexed with Fe³⁺ to eliminate leakage of the photothermal reagent from the matrix and to solve the problem of poor water resistance. The resulting film (CMC-g-CDs-Fe) has excellent prospects for practical application as a photothermal film.