Ultra-strong phosphorescence with 48% quantum yield from grinding treated thermal annealed carbon dots and boric acid composite

Metal-free room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials are of great significance for many applications; however, they usually exhibit low efficiency and weak intensity. This article reports a new strategy for the preparation of a high-efficiency and strong RTP materials from crystalline thermal-annealed carbon dots (CDs) and boric acid (BA) composite (g-t-CD@BA) through grinding-induced amorphous to crystallization transition. Amorphous thermal-annealed CDs and BA composite (t-CD@BA) is prepared following a thermal melting and super-cooling route, where the CDs are fully dispersed in molten BA liquid and uniformly frozen in an amorphous thermal annealed BA matrix after super-cooling to room temperature. Upon grinding treatment, the fracture and fragmentation caused by grinding promote the transformation of the high-energy amorphous state to the lower energy crystalline counterparts. As a result, the CDs are uniformly in situ embedded in the BA crystal matrix. This method affords maximum uniform embedding of the CDs in the BA crystals, decreases nonradiative decay, and promotes intersystem crossing by restraining the free vibration of the CDs, thus producing strong RTP materials with the highest reported phosphorescence quantum yield (48%). Remarkably, RTP from g-t-CD@BA powder is strong enough to illuminate items with a delay time exceeding 9 s.

Automated summary

A new strategy is reported for the preparation of high-efficiency and strong room-temperature phosphorescence materials through grinding-induced transformation. The method achieves uniform embedding of carbon dots in boron acid crystals, resulting in enhanced phosphorescence.