Functionalization of Carbonaceous Nanodots from MnII-Coordinating Functional Knots

Transition metal (TM)-induced functionalization has been expected to be powerful for the modification of carbonaceous nanodots (CDs) for many years. Although some attempts have been made, relevant research evolutions are at a standstill. In this work, a coordination-carbonization protocol to gain Mn-II-functionalized CDs (MCDs) was innovatively employed, and the modification of CDs based on metal-coordinating functional knots was realized. By investigating the structural and photophysical properties, coordinating conformation of functional knots was confirmed and considered to be correlated with excitation-independent photoluminescence as well as large Stokes shift of MCDs. Moreover, potential applications of MCDs have been extended from common bioimaging and fluorescent inks to new areas, such as chemosensors for volatile organic compounds and anticorrosion fluorescent films.