Redox Modifications of Carbon Dots Shape Their Optoelectronics

Abstract

Carbon dots (CDs) are 1–10 nm scaled complex nanostructures with a wide range of applications and show unconventional photophysical behavior upon excitation. In this article, we have unveiled some of the underlying mechanisms and excited state dynamics of CDs by perturbing their interface with oxidizing and reducing agents. With no substantial alteration in size of surface-treated oxidized (^OCDs), reduced (^RCDs), and untreated CDs (^UCDs), we observe marked changes in their charge transport properties and diverse spectral signatures in singlet and triplet excited states. Fine tuning of the spectral behavior of nanomaterials is often treated as an outcome of quantum confinement of the excitons. Herein with different spectroscopic techniques along with conducting atomic force microscopy and triplet–triplet absorption, we elucidate that, not just confinement, the structural modification at the surface also dictates optoelectronic behavior by altering some properties such as energy band gap, quantum tunneling across the metal–CD–metal junction, and yield of triplet excitons.

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