Objective(s): Graphene as two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted wide attention in different fields such as biomedical imaging. Ultra-small graphene nano-sheets (UGNSs) have been designated as low dimensional graphene sheets with lateral dimensions less than few nanometres (≤ 500 nm) in one, two or few layers. Several studies have proven that the process of acidic exfoliation and oxidati...

Photoluminescent hydrogels have emerged as novel soft materials with potential applications in many fields. Although many photoluminescent hydrogels have been fabricated, their scope of usage has been severely limited by their poor mechanical performance. Here, a facile strategy is reported for preparing lanthanide (Ln)-alginate/polyacrylamide (PAAm) hydrogels with both high toughness and photo...

Quenching of a fluorophore is significantly influenced by the molecular structure of the quencher. In this study, photoluminescence quenching by nitroaromatic compounds was evaluated to assess the molecular interaction between nitroaromatic molecules and the photoluminescent tyrosyl bolaamphiphile self-assembly, a nanoscale optical photoluminescent probe. Both the aromatic structure and hydroph...

A pyrene photoluminescent layer is coated on the front side of a dye-sensitized solar cell to enhance the power conversion efficiency. The power conversion efficiency of the dye-sensitized solar cell coated with a pyrene photoluminescent layer improves from 9.12 ± 0.06% to 10.30 ± 0.11% (an improvement of 12.94%).

A simple one-pot hydrothermal approach has been demonstrated for the preparation of highly water soluble and photoluminescent carbon nanodots (C-dots) from low-cost organic compounds. We found that the compounds incorporating amino and carboxylic acid groups are suitable for the preparation of highly photoluminescent and water-soluble C-dots.

Ozone (O3) gas is widely used as a strong oxidizing agent for many purposes, such as the decomposition/removal of organic contaminants and photoresist, and the deodorization/disinfection of air and water. However, ozone is highly toxic to the human body when the air concentration exceeds about 1 ppm. Therefore, there is increasing demand for simple, sensitive, reliable, and cost-effective techn...

Organic photoluminescent materials are important to many applications especially for diagnosis and detection, and most of organic photoluminescent materials contain fluorophores with extended conjugated structures. Recently some of amino-containing polymers without fluorophores with extended conjugated structure are observed to be photoluminescent, and one possible cause of the photoluminescenc...

A contemporary question in the intensely active field of periodic mesoporous organosilica (PMO) materials is how large a silsesquioxane precursor can be self-assembled under template direction into the pore walls of an ordered mesostructure. An answer to this question is beginning to emerge with the ability to synthesize dendrimer, buckyball, and polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane PMOs. In th...

The surface of CdSe nanoparticles was functionalized with 11-hydroxyundecanoic acid (11-HUDA) during in situ preparation to afford stable and highly luminescent quantum dot (QD) solutions. The reactivity of the hydroxyl groups of 11-HUDA was then utilized in carbamate bond forming reactions with diisocyanate-bearing molecules that serve as linkers in the fabrication of the multilayered CdSe qua...

In recent years, photoluminescent gold nanoclusters have attracted considerable interest in both fundamental biomedical research and practical applications. Due to their ultrasmall size, unique molecule-like optical properties, and facile synthesis gold nanoclusters have been considered very promising photoluminescent agents for biosensing, bioimaging, and targeted therapy. Yet, interaction of ...