Refractive-Index Tuning of Highly Fluorescent Carbon Dots

Vijay Bhooshan Kumar, Amit Kumar Sahu, Abu S.M. Mohsin, Xiangping Li, Aharon Gedanken

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

55 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this manuscript, we report the refractive-index (RI) modulation of various concentrations of nitrogen-doped carbon dots (N@C-dots) embedded in poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) polymer. The dispersion and size distribution of N@C-dots embedded within PVA have been investigated using electron microscopy. The RI of PVA-N@C-dots can be enhanced by increasing the doping concentration of highly fluorescent C-dots (quantum yield 44%). This is demonstrated using ultraviolet-visible (UV-visible), photoluminscence, Raman, and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy measurements. The Mie scattering of light on N@C-dots was applied for developing the relationship between RI tuning and absorption cross section of N@C-dots. The extinction cross section of N@C-dot thin films can be rapidly enhanced by either tuning the RI or increasing the concentration of N@C-dots. The developed method can be used as effective RI contrast for various applications such as holography creation and bioimaging.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)28930-28938
Number of pages9
JournalACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume9
Issue number34
DOIs
StatePublished - 30 Aug 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 American Chemical Society.

Keywords

  • C-dots
  • Mie scattering
  • N@C-dots
  • PVA
  • refractive index

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