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Nano Research 2024, 17(5): 4391-4399 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6383-6
Research Article | Issue | Published: 20 December 2023

Surface-state controlled synthesis of hydrophobic and hydrophilic carbon dots

Show Author's Information Chan Wang1( ),  Yuan Fang1,  Mi Zhang2,  Huan Zhuo1,  Qijun Song1,  Han Zhu1( )
Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Biological Colloids, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical and Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China
Jiangsu Snow Leopard Household Chemical Co., Ltd., Wuxi 214400, China
Keywords:
surface chemistry, carbon dots, hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity, solvothermal temperature, alcoholic strength evaluation
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Fluorescence
Cite this article:
Wang C, Fang Y, Zhang M, et al. Surface-state controlled synthesis of hydrophobic and hydrophilic carbon dots. Nano Research, 2024, 17(5): 4391-4399. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6383-6
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

It is of great significance to synthesize carbon dots (CDs) with desirable hydrophilicity for the ever-growing application of CDs in different fields. In this study, the hydrophilic and hydrophobic CDs were facilely prepared by solvothermal treatment of o-dihydroxybenzene and urea in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF). Optimization experiments revealed that the solvothermal temperature has a great impact on the surface states of the CDs. The hydrophobic CDs with a contact angle of 110.7° was obtained at 200 °C. The structural and optical characterizations, along with theoretical calculations elucidated that the lipophilic nature of the CDs was resulting from the formation of polymer chains. The presence of extended conjugated sp2-domains and amino groups contributed to the red emission of the CDs synthesized at low reaction temperatures (160–200 °C). With the further increase of solvothermal temperature, the hydrophobic CDs were gradually transformed to the hydrophilic state accompanying the blue shift of the fluorescence of the CDs. The highly hydrophilic CDs with a contact angle of 25.9° were obtained at 240 °C due to the increased formation of hydrophilic functional groups on the surface of CDs. The red emissive CDs exhibited a sensitive color and fluorescence response to ethanol content while the fluorescence of the blue emissive CDs remained constant. By combining the two kinds of CDs, a dual-emission sensor was constructed, which was successfully applied for the evaluation of the alcoholic strength in commercial Baijiu commodities in both fluorometric and colorimetric modes.


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Abstract
Full text
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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Surface-state controlled synthesis of hydrophobic and hydrophilic carbon dots

Show Author's information Chan Wang1( ), Yuan Fang1, Mi Zhang2, Huan Zhuo1, Qijun Song1, Han Zhu1( )
Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Biological Colloids, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical and Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China
Jiangsu Snow Leopard Household Chemical Co., Ltd., Wuxi 214400, China

Abstract

It is of great significance to synthesize carbon dots (CDs) with desirable hydrophilicity for the ever-growing application of CDs in different fields. In this study, the hydrophilic and hydrophobic CDs were facilely prepared by solvothermal treatment of o-dihydroxybenzene and urea in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF). Optimization experiments revealed that the solvothermal temperature has a great impact on the surface states of the CDs. The hydrophobic CDs with a contact angle of 110.7° was obtained at 200 °C. The structural and optical characterizations, along with theoretical calculations elucidated that the lipophilic nature of the CDs was resulting from the formation of polymer chains. The presence of extended conjugated sp2-domains and amino groups contributed to the red emission of the CDs synthesized at low reaction temperatures (160–200 °C). With the further increase of solvothermal temperature, the hydrophobic CDs were gradually transformed to the hydrophilic state accompanying the blue shift of the fluorescence of the CDs. The highly hydrophilic CDs with a contact angle of 25.9° were obtained at 240 °C due to the increased formation of hydrophilic functional groups on the surface of CDs. The red emissive CDs exhibited a sensitive color and fluorescence response to ethanol content while the fluorescence of the blue emissive CDs remained constant. By combining the two kinds of CDs, a dual-emission sensor was constructed, which was successfully applied for the evaluation of the alcoholic strength in commercial Baijiu commodities in both fluorometric and colorimetric modes.

Keywords: surface chemistry, carbon dots, hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity, solvothermal temperature, alcoholic strength evaluation

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 03 November 2023
Revised: 28 November 2023
Accepted: 28 November 2023
Published: 20 December 2023
Issue date: May 2024

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2023

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51973083 and 22376081) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. JUSRP22027).

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