title: Chemiluminescence of carbon dots under strong alkaline solutions: a novel insight into carbon dot optical properties.
abstract: We report the surprising chemiluminescence (CL) behavior of fluorescent carbon dots in the presence of a strong alkaline solution, such as NaOH or KOH. The CL intensity was dependent on the concentration of the base and carbon dots in a certain range. A possible CL mechanism was studied by UV-Vis, fluorescence, CL, FTIR, XPS and EPR spectroscopy. Radiative recombination of the injected electrons by "chemical reduction" of carbon dots with thermally excited generated holes was proposed, which sheds new light on the characteristics of carbon dots.
authors: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, PO Box 2871, Beijing 100085, PR China. zlx@rcees.ac.cn
authors: Lixia
authors: L
authors: Zhao
authors: Fan
authors: F
authors: Di
authors: Dabin
authors: D
authors: Wang
authors: Liang-Hong
authors: LH
authors: Guo
authors: Yu
authors: Y
authors: Yang
authors: Bin
authors: B
authors: Wan
authors: Hui
authors: H
authors: Zhang