Surface-mounted carbon quantum dots onto photonic crystals generating dual structural-fluorescent color rendering

Abstract

By using citric acid (CA) as the carbon source and hyperbranched polyethyleneimine (PEI) as the surface passivation agent, we successfully synthesized carbon quantum dots (CQDs) with outstanding fluorescence even in their aggregated state. Further mounting them onto the surface of ZIF-8/TiO₂ one-dimensional photonic crystals (PCs), we can realize composite films to demonstrate dual structural-fluorescent color rendering.