title: Tunable amphiphilicity and multifunctional applications of ionic-liquid-modified carbon quantum dots.
abstract: During the past decade, increasing attention has been paid to photoluminescent nanocarbon materials, namely, carbon quantum dots (CQDs). It is gradually accepted that surface engineering plays a key role in regulating the properties and hence the applications of the CQDs. In this paper, we prepared highly charged CQDs through a one-pot pyrolysis with citric acid as carbon source and a room-temperature imidazolium-based ionic liquid as capping agent. The as-prepared CQDs exhibit high quantum yields up to 25.1% and are stable under various environments. In addition, the amphiphilicity of the CQDs can be facilely tuned by anion exchange, which leads to a spontaneous phase transfer between water and oil phase. The promising applications of the CQDs as ion sensors and fluorescent inks have been demonstrated. In both cases, these ionic-liquid-modified CQDs were found to possess novel characteristics and/or superior functions compared to existing ones.
authors.affiliation: †Laboratory of Clean Energy Chemistry and Materials, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730000, China.
authors.forename: Baogang
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: ‡Key Laboratory of Colloid and Interface Chemistry, and Key Laboratory of Special Aggregated Materials, Shandong University, Ministry of Education, Jinan, Shandong Province 250100, China.
authors.forename: Aixin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: ‡Key Laboratory of Colloid and Interface Chemistry, and Key Laboratory of Special Aggregated Materials, Shandong University, Ministry of Education, Jinan, Shandong Province 250100, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: †Laboratory of Clean Energy Chemistry and Materials, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730000, China.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ruan
authors.affiliation: †Laboratory of Clean Energy Chemistry and Materials, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730000, China.
authors.forename: Hongguang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: ‡Key Laboratory of Colloid and Interface Chemistry, and Key Laboratory of Special Aggregated Materials, Shandong University, Ministry of Education, Jinan, Shandong Province 250100, China.
authors.forename: Shuli
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: ‡Key Laboratory of Colloid and Interface Chemistry, and Key Laboratory of Special Aggregated Materials, Shandong University, Ministry of Education, Jinan, Shandong Province 250100, China.
authors.forename: Jingcheng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hao
keywords: amphiphilicity; carbon quantum dots; fluorescent ink; ion sensor; ionic liquid; phase transfer