Fluorescent carbon dots from birch leaves for sustainable electroluminescent devices

TY - JOUR

T1 - Fluorescent carbon dots from birch leaves for sustainable electroluminescent devices

AU - Tang, Shi

AU - Liu, Yongfeng

AU - Opoku, Henry

AU - Gregorsson, Märta

AU - Zhang, Peijuan

AU - Auroux, Etienne

AU - Dang, Dongfeng

AU - Mudring, Anja Verena

AU - Wågberg, Thomas

AU - Edman, Ludvig

AU - Wang, Jia

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Royal Society of Chemistry.

PY - 2023/11

Y1 - 2023/11

N2 - The shift from depleting petroleum compounds to regenerating biomass as the raw material for organic semiconductors is a prerequisite if organic electronics is to become truly sustainable. Here, we report on a one-pot solvothermal synthesis of a biomass-based carbon dot (bio-CD) fluorescent semiconductor, using birch leaves as the sole raw material. These bio-CDs are highly soluble in ethanol (45 g L−1), and deliver deep-red and narrowband emission (peak wavelength = 675 nm, full width at half maximum, FWHM = 28 nm) at a high photoluminescence quantum yield of 26% in ethanol solution. Systematic structural characterization shows that molecular pheophytin a is the single fluorophore, and that this fluorophore is localized in the bulk of the bio-CD away from its polar surface. The functionality of the birch-leaf-derived bio-CDs in sustainable organic electronics is demonstrated by its employment as the printable emitter in a light-emitting electrochemical cell, which delivers narrowband deep-red luminance of 110 cd m−2, with a FWHM of 29 nm, at an external quantum efficiency of 0.29%. This study thus reveals a promising avenue for the functional benign synthesis and the practical solution-based implementation of narrowband bio-CDs in sustainable optoelectronic technologies.

AB - The shift from depleting petroleum compounds to regenerating biomass as the raw material for organic semiconductors is a prerequisite if organic electronics is to become truly sustainable. Here, we report on a one-pot solvothermal synthesis of a biomass-based carbon dot (bio-CD) fluorescent semiconductor, using birch leaves as the sole raw material. These bio-CDs are highly soluble in ethanol (45 g L−1), and deliver deep-red and narrowband emission (peak wavelength = 675 nm, full width at half maximum, FWHM = 28 nm) at a high photoluminescence quantum yield of 26% in ethanol solution. Systematic structural characterization shows that molecular pheophytin a is the single fluorophore, and that this fluorophore is localized in the bulk of the bio-CD away from its polar surface. The functionality of the birch-leaf-derived bio-CDs in sustainable organic electronics is demonstrated by its employment as the printable emitter in a light-emitting electrochemical cell, which delivers narrowband deep-red luminance of 110 cd m−2, with a FWHM of 29 nm, at an external quantum efficiency of 0.29%. This study thus reveals a promising avenue for the functional benign synthesis and the practical solution-based implementation of narrowband bio-CDs in sustainable optoelectronic technologies.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85176252233&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1039/d3gc03827k

DO - 10.1039/d3gc03827k

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85176252233

SN - 1463-9262

VL - 25

SP - 9884

EP - 9895

JO - Green Chemistry

JF - Green Chemistry

IS - 23

ER -