Preparation of full-color carbon quantum dots with multiple emission centers

In recent years, carbon dots have attracted more and more attention due to their unique advantages, but there has been a great controversy about the study of their mechanism. A clear mechanism is of great importance for the structural design of carbon dots. To investigate the photoluminescence mechanism of carbon dots, full-color carbon dots with multiple emission centers were successfully prepared by using citric acid and water-soluble aniline blue. It is shown that the red shift of emission wavelength is attributed to the synergistic effect of N and O-related surface functional groups and quantum size. The successful preparation of cold white light diodes from mixed trichromatic carbon dots indicates that this type of carbon dot has important applications in light-emitting devices.