A Polymer Template Strategy for Carbonized Polymer Dots with Controllable Properties

Limited avenues are available for property control of carbonized polymer dots (PDs) owing to the unsatisfactory understanding of PDs formation. Herein, a de novo polymer template strategy is presented for PDs with customizable functional surface groups (FSG), size, and underlying fluorescence, with a detailed mechanism. The strategy relies on novel di-active site polymers (DASPs) prepared from alkenyl azides via [3+2] cycloaddition and guanidino hydrolysis. Benefiting from these specific reactions, the DASPs were convenient for mass production and stable for storage, and could be transformed to PDs upon addition of nucleophilic agents through nucleophilic addition and substitution at 70 degrees C. By regulating the types of alkenyl azides, nucleophilic agents, and reaction conditions, the as-prepare PDs could be tailored with controlled types of core, FSG, and particle size, as well as fluorescence properties of quantum yield from 8.2-55.6 %, and emission maximum from 380-500 nm. These specialties make this polymer template strategy a promising start for building PDs-based sensor platforms. Moreover, the strategy could further our understanding towards PDs' formation, and open up a new way to customize PDs for specific needs in the fields of analysis, catalysis, images, etc.