Influence of organic solvents on the production of graphene quantum dots via liquid-phase exfoliation

IF 4.3 3区材料科学 Q2 MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Optical Materials Pub Date : 2026-06-01 Epub Date: 2026-02-23 DOI:10.1016/j.optmat.2026.117984

Kashif Abbas, Peirui Ji, Muhammad Faizan Ameer, Shuming Yang

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Abstract

Graphene quantum dots (GQDs) exhibit pronounced quantum confinement and edge effects, resulting in tunable band gaps, high photostability, and chemical robustness, which make them promising candidates for optoelectronic applications. In this work, GQDs were probe sonicated using three organic solvents, N–methyl–2–pyrrolidone (NMP), dimethylformamide (DMF), and dichloromethane (DCM) to elucidate the role of solvent properties on exfoliation efficiency and resulting structure property relationships. Structural and morphological analysis revealed pronounced solvent–dependent differences. GQDs produced in NMP exhibited the smallest lateral dimensions (∼2–10 nm), narrow thickness distribution (∼1.6–6.1 nm), and improved structural ordering, as evidenced by a relatively sharp (002) diffraction feature and the lowest Raman I_D/I_G ratio (0.34), indicating reduced defect density. UV–visible absorption spectra showed a blue–shifted absorption edge for NMP–derived GQDs, while optical band gaps estimated from Tauc plots yielded values of 2.75 eV (NMP), 2.53 eV (DMF), and 2.35 eV (DCM). Consistently, photoluminescence measurements revealed the strongest and most blue–shifted emission for NMP–exfoliated GQDs, confirming enhanced quantum confinement and suppressed non–radiative recombination. These results demonstrate that solvent selection critically governs the structural and optical quality of GQDs, with NMP enabling the formation of highly uniform and optically superior GQDs suitable for scalable optoelectronic applications.

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有机溶剂对液相剥离法制备石墨烯量子点的影响

石墨烯量子点（GQDs）表现出明显的量子约束和边缘效应，导致可调谐的带隙，高光稳定性和化学鲁棒性，使其成为光电应用的有希望的候选者。本文采用n -甲基- 2 -吡咯烷酮（NMP）、二甲基甲酰胺（DMF）和二氯甲烷（DCM）三种有机溶剂对GQDs进行探针超声检测，以阐明溶剂性质对剥离效率的影响及其结构性质关系。结构和形态分析显示明显的溶剂依赖性差异。在NMP中产生的GQDs具有最小的横向尺寸（~ 2-10 nm），窄的厚度分布（~ 1.6-6.1 nm），以及改进的结构有序，这可以通过相对清晰的（002）衍射特征和最低的拉曼ID/IG比（0.34）来证明，这表明缺陷密度降低了。NMP衍生GQDs的紫外-可见吸收光谱显示蓝移吸收边，而Tauc图估计的光学带隙产生值为2.75 eV (NMP), 2.53 eV （DMF）和2.35 eV （DCM）。一致地，光致发光测量显示，nmp剥离的GQDs具有最强和最蓝移的发射，证实了增强的量子约束和抑制的非辐射复合。这些结果表明，溶剂选择对GQDs的结构和光学质量至关重要，NMP可以形成高度均匀且光学性能优越的GQDs，适用于可扩展的光电应用。

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来源期刊

Optical Materials 工程技术-材料科学：综合

CiteScore

6.60

自引率

12.80%

发文量

1265

审稿时长

38 days

期刊介绍： Optical Materials has an open access mirror journal Optical Materials: X, sharing the same aims and scope, editorial team, submission system and rigorous peer review. The purpose of Optical Materials is to provide a means of communication and technology transfer between researchers who are interested in materials for potential device applications. The journal publishes original papers and review articles on the design, synthesis, characterisation and applications of optical materials. OPTICAL MATERIALS focuses on: • Optical Properties of Material Systems; • The Materials Aspects of Optical Phenomena; • The Materials Aspects of Devices and Applications. Authors can submit separate research elements describing their data to Data in Brief and methods to Methods X.