Coşkun Yağız, Ünlü Fatma Yelda, Yılmaz Tuğbahan, Türker Yurdanur, Aydogan Abdullah, Kuş Mahmut, Ünlü Caner
Department of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, Istanbul Technical University, Maslak, 34469 Istanbul, Turkey.
Faculty of Science and Letters, Department of Chemistry, Istanbul Technical University, Maslak, 34469 Istanbul, Turkey.
ACS Omega. 2022 May 24;7(22):18840-18851. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.2c01795. eCollection 2022 Jun 7.
Carbon dots (CDs) are carbon-based fluorescent nanomaterials that are of interest in different research areas due to their low cost production and low toxicity. Considering their unique photophysical properties, hydrophobic/amphiphilic CDs are powerful alternatives to metal-based quantum dots in LED and photovoltaic cell designs. On the other hand, CDs possess a considerably high amount of surface defects that give rise to two significant drawbacks: (1) causing decrease in quantum yield (QY), a crucial drawback that limits their utilization in LEDs, and (2) affecting the efficiency of charge transfer, a significant factor that limits the use of CDs in photovoltaic cells. In this study, we synthesized highly luminescent, water-insoluble, slightly amphiphilic CDs by using a macrocyclic compound, calix[4]pyrrole, for the first time in the literature. Calix[4]pyrrole-derived CDs (CP-DOTs) were highly luminescent with a QY of over 60% and size of around 4-10 nm with graphitic structure. The high quantum yield of CP-DOTs indicated that they had less amount of surface defects. Furthermore, CP-DOTs were used as an additive in the active layer of organic solar cells (OSC). The photovoltaic parameters of OSCs improved upon addition of CDs. Our results indicated that calix[4]pyrrole is an excellent carbon precursor to synthesize highly luminescent and water-insoluble carbon dots, and CDs derived from calix[4]pyrrole are excellent candidates to improve optoelectronic devices.
碳点（CDs）是碳基荧光纳米材料，由于其生产成本低且毒性小，在不同研究领域备受关注。鉴于其独特的光物理性质，疏水/两亲性碳点在发光二极管（LED）和光伏电池设计中是金属基量子点的有力替代品。另一方面，碳点存在大量表面缺陷，这导致两个显著缺点：（1）导致量子产率（QY）降低，这是限制其在发光二极管中应用的关键缺点；（2）影响电荷转移效率，这是限制碳点在光伏电池中应用的一个重要因素。在本研究中，我们首次在文献中使用大环化合物杯[4]吡咯合成了高发光、水不溶性、略带两亲性的碳点。杯[4]吡咯衍生的碳点（CP-DOTs）具有高发光性，量子产率超过60%，尺寸约为4-10纳米，具有石墨结构。CP-DOTs的高量子产率表明它们的表面缺陷较少。此外，CP-DOTs被用作有机太阳能电池（OSC）活性层中的添加剂。添加碳点后，有机太阳能电池的光伏参数得到改善。我们的结果表明，杯[4]吡咯是合成高发光和水不溶性碳点的优良碳前驱体，杯[4]吡咯衍生的碳点是改善光电器件的优秀候选材料。
