title: Light Harvesting and White-Light Generation in a Composite of Carbon Dots and Dye-Encapsulated BSA-Protein-Capped Gold Nanoclusters.
abstract: Several strategies have been adopted to design an artificial light-harvesting system in which light energy is captured by peripheral chromophores and it is subsequently transferred to the core via energy transfer. A composite of carbon dots and dye-encapsulated BSA-protein-capped gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) has been developed for efficient light harvesting and white light generation. Carbon dots (C-dots) act as donor and AuNCs capped with BSA protein act as acceptor. Analysis reveals that energy transfer increases from 63 % to 83 % in presence of coumarin dye (C153), which enhances the cascade energy transfer from carbon dots to AuNCs. Bright white light emission with a quantum yield of 19 % under the 375 nm excitation wavelength is achieved by changing the ratio of components. Interesting findings reveal that the efficient energy transfer in carbon-dot-metal-cluster nanocomposites may open up new possibilities in designing artificial light harvesting systems for future applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata, 700 032, India.
authors.forename: Monoj Kumar
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Barman
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata, 700 032, India.
authors.forename: Bipattaran
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Paramanik
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata, 700 032, India.
authors.forename: Dipankar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bain
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata, 700 032, India. msap@iacs.res.in.
authors.forename: Amitava
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Patra
mesh_terms: D003116:Color; D003374:Coumarins / Q000737:chemistry*; D004735:Energy Transfer; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D008027:Light; D045342:Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000528:radiation effects; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D053761:Nanocomposites
chemical_list: D003374:Coumarins; D045342:Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes; D006046:Gold; C030123:coumarin
keywords: carbon dots; cascade energy transfer; gold nanoclusters; light harvesting; white light