A Facile Preparation of Multicolor Carbon Dots

Carbon dots (CDs) have raised broad interest because of their great potential in the fluorescence related fields, such as photocatalysis and bioimaging. CDs exhibit different optical properties when dissolved in various solvents. However, the effects of solvents during the process of preparation on the fluorescence emission of CDs are still unclear. In this work, CDs were prepared by a simple one-pot solvothermal route. Typical critic acid and thiourea were used as precursors. Through changing the volume ratio of water to N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), we have obtained color tunable CDs, with the emission wavelength from 450 to 640 nm. TEM images, Raman and XPS spectra indicate that the particle size of CDs and the content of surface functional groups (C–N/C–S and C≡N bonds) increase with the increasing ratio of DMF to water, which results in the optimal emission wavelength red-shifted. The prepared multicolor CDs may have prospects in the lighting applications. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s11671-022-03661-z.