Carbon dots from surface-capping/passivation of small carbon nanoparticles with nanoscale titanium dioxide

Kirkland Sheriff; Weixong Liang; Subhadra Yerra; Dino Sulejmanovic; Christopher Nelson; Andrew Lupini; Shiou Jyh Hwu; Buta Singh; Ya Ping Sun

doi:10.1016/j.cplett.2025.141913

Carbon dots from surface-capping/passivation of small carbon nanoparticles with nanoscale titanium dioxide

Kirkland Sheriff, Weixong Liang, Subhadra Yerra, Dino Sulejmanovic, Christopher Nelson, Andrew Lupini, Shiou Jyh Hwu, Buta Singh, Ya Ping Sun

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Carbon dots are classically defined as small carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) with effective surface passivation, which has been accomplished predominantly by surface organic functionalization. In the current work, the passivation is achieved by the surface coating of CNPs with nanoscale TiO₂ for CNP/TiO₂ core/shell nanostructures, which are analogous to conventional semiconductor core/shell quantum dots (QDs). The TiO₂ capping of CNPs results in substantial enhancements in the fluorescence quantum yields, also analogous to the similar enhancements famously known for the semiconductor QDs. Mechanistic implications of the findings, including the associated further validation on the classical definition of carbon dots, are discussed.

Original language	English
Article number	141913
Journal	Chemical Physics Letters
Volume	864
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cplett.2025.141913
State	Published - Apr 2025

Funding

K.S. acknowledges the support of the DOE Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education for DOE under contract number DE\u2013SC0014664. Y.-P.S. is grateful for the funding by NSF (2102021) and USDA (2023-67018-40681). The STEM experiments (C.T.N. A.R.L.) were conducted as part of a user project at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS), which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. K.S. acknowledges the support of the DOE Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education for DOE under contract number DE\u2013SC0014664. Y.-P.S. is grateful for the funding by NSF (2102021) and USDA (2023-67018-40681). The STEM experiments (C.T.N., A.R.L.) were conducted as part of a user project at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS), which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Keywords

Carbon dots
Carbon nanoparticles
Core/shell nanostructure
Fluorescence enhancement
Surface passivation

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10.1016/j.cplett.2025.141913

Cite this

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title = "Carbon dots from surface-capping/passivation of small carbon nanoparticles with nanoscale titanium dioxide",

abstract = "Carbon dots are classically defined as small carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) with effective surface passivation, which has been accomplished predominantly by surface organic functionalization. In the current work, the passivation is achieved by the surface coating of CNPs with nanoscale TiO2 for CNP/TiO2 core/shell nanostructures, which are analogous to conventional semiconductor core/shell quantum dots (QDs). The TiO2 capping of CNPs results in substantial enhancements in the fluorescence quantum yields, also analogous to the similar enhancements famously known for the semiconductor QDs. Mechanistic implications of the findings, including the associated further validation on the classical definition of carbon dots, are discussed.",

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doi = "10.1016/j.cplett.2025.141913",

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AU - Sheriff, Kirkland

AU - Liang, Weixong

AU - Yerra, Subhadra

AU - Sulejmanovic, Dino

AU - Nelson, Christopher

AU - Lupini, Andrew

AU - Hwu, Shiou Jyh

AU - Singh, Buta

AU - Sun, Ya Ping

PY - 2025/4

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N2 - Carbon dots are classically defined as small carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) with effective surface passivation, which has been accomplished predominantly by surface organic functionalization. In the current work, the passivation is achieved by the surface coating of CNPs with nanoscale TiO2 for CNP/TiO2 core/shell nanostructures, which are analogous to conventional semiconductor core/shell quantum dots (QDs). The TiO2 capping of CNPs results in substantial enhancements in the fluorescence quantum yields, also analogous to the similar enhancements famously known for the semiconductor QDs. Mechanistic implications of the findings, including the associated further validation on the classical definition of carbon dots, are discussed.

AB - Carbon dots are classically defined as small carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) with effective surface passivation, which has been accomplished predominantly by surface organic functionalization. In the current work, the passivation is achieved by the surface coating of CNPs with nanoscale TiO2 for CNP/TiO2 core/shell nanostructures, which are analogous to conventional semiconductor core/shell quantum dots (QDs). The TiO2 capping of CNPs results in substantial enhancements in the fluorescence quantum yields, also analogous to the similar enhancements famously known for the semiconductor QDs. Mechanistic implications of the findings, including the associated further validation on the classical definition of carbon dots, are discussed.

KW - Carbon dots

KW - Carbon nanoparticles

KW - Core/shell nanostructure

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Carbon dots from surface-capping/passivation of small carbon nanoparticles with nanoscale titanium dioxide

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Keywords

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