| Posted: Mar 17, 2015 |
Cage-opening fullerene provide fluorescent graphene quantum dots |
| (Nanowerk News) New work by an international research team has demonstrated the simultaneous oxidation and cage-opening of fullerene C60 to provide graphene quantum dots. |
| Reporting their findings in ACS Nano ("Synthesis of Strongly Fluorescent Graphene Quantum Dots by Cage-Opening Buckminsterfullerene"), the team synthesized graphene quantum dots (QDs) by treating fullerene C60 with a mixture of concentrated sulfuric acid, sodium nitrate, and potassium permanganate. |
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| Treatment of fullerene C60 with a mixture of strong acid and chemical oxidant induced the oxidation, cage-opening, and fragmentation processes of fullerene C60. (© ACS) |
| Detailed characterization including LDI-TOF MS, TEM, AFM, STM, XPS, DLS, FT-IR, and Raman spectroscopy analyses revealed the formation of aggregated small fragments consisting of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen elements, which favored the production of graphene QDs. |
| More importantly, the graphene QDs exhibited strong luminescence properties when excited at 340 nm. |
| The highly oxygenated graphene QDs showcased their broad prospects for modifications through successful functionalization reactions. The luminescence properties varied according to the types of chemical treatments, whereby hydroxylamine-functionalized graphene QDs showed a blue-shift of the emission maximum, while hydrazine-reduced graphene QDs showed a red-shift of the emission maximum. |
| All in all, the simplicity of this method in producing graphene QDs shows potential for further development for integration into practical devices or applications including optoelectronics and biological labeling. |
| Source: American Chemical Society |
