Design of CDs/SiO2 Composite Phosphors via a Double Hydrolysis Reaction and their Expectable Luminescence Performance

Carbon dots (CDs), as an emerging carbon material, have attracted considerable interest for their promising luminescent properties. However, the inevitable aggregation of CDs in solid-state results in some bottleneck problems such as aggregation-induced quenching and foster resonance energy transfer. Therefore, developing solid-sate CDs with good luminescent performance is still a challenge. Herein, a simple and low-cost approach is presented to prepare the solid-state CDs/SiO2 composite in which the CDs were well dispersed and embedded in inorganic silica gel, hence restraining the natural issues of the solid-state CDs. As expected, the CDs/SiO2 composite phosphors showed higher fluorescence intensity about twice than the CDs aqueous solution, and a high photoluminescence quantum yield of 21%. This work would be of significance for the preparation of CDs and even their practical applications.