A rich gallery of carbon dots based photoluminescent suspensions and powders derived by citric acid/urea

Abstract In this study we demonstrate simple guidelines to generate a diverse range of fluorescent materials in both liquid and solid state by focusing on the most popular C-dots precursors, i.e. binary systems citric acid urea. The pyrolytic treatment those precursors combined with standard size separation techniques (dialysis filtration), leads four distinct families photoluminescent which emissive signal predominantly arises from embedded fluorophores, cyanuric acid-rich C-dots, blend molecular fluorophores mixture unbound respectively. Within each one chemical composition optical properties their members can be fine-tuned adjusting molar ratio reactants. Apart generating variety aqueous dispersions, our approach highly powders derived comprising excessive amounts urea that is consumed for build-up carbogenic cores, diluent matrix suppresses self-quenching effects.