Ethanothermal synthesis of phenol-derived carbon dots with multiple color emission via a versatile oxidation strategy

Herein, we report an ethanothermal synthesis of multicolor fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) by using a series of phenols and oxidants as the precursors. The emission colors of CDs are well-controlled at blue, green, yellow or red wavelengths by adjusting the combination of a phenol and an oxidant. And the naphthalenediol with highly reactivity and the oxidant with heavy halogen atom result in CDs exhibiting long wavelength emission. The resulting nanodots are characterized as amorphous aggregates with abundant oxygen species. The phenol-derived CDs can be used as highly processible fillers to fabricate epoxy composites, and a white light-emitting diode (LED) employing the multicolor CDs/epoxy composite as the light converter is also demonstrated.