Microwave-assisted synthesizing water-soluble nitrogen-doped carbon dots usable in LEDs
摘要
Carbon dots (CDs) have been emerged as promising nanomaterials due to their rich carbon source, facile synthesis, and environment-friendly sustainability, creating extensive opportunities in light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Herein, we demonstrate microwave-assisted synthesizing water-soluble CDs, showing average size of 3.40 nm, and high quantum yield of 31.65%. Using CDs-doped polyvinylpyrrolidone as composite fluorescent films and 365-, 395-, 410-, 460-nm chips as exciting sources, superior photoluminescent LEDs are constructed, giving yellow-green emission with ultrahigh luminance of 344,567, 298,100, 340,156, 566,934 cd m−2, and power efficiency of 12.0, 13.7, 14.0, 38.6 lm W−1, respectively. Using host–guest doped emitting system of poly(N-vinyl carbazole) (PVK)-CDs, electroluminescent LED reaches maximum luminance of 882 cd m−2 at 14 V, luminous efficiency of 0.23 cd A−1, and external quantum efficiency of 0.15%, which are superior to the counterparts with PVK and pure CDs. Excellent performance could be attributed to the high quantum yield, good dispersity, and effective energy transfer. The electroluminescent LED evolves color shift from violet emission of PVK at low voltages to nearly white emission of both PVK and CDs at high voltages. Our works provide some novel ideas for boosting CDs and CDs-based LEDs.