Thickness-Dependent
Full-Color Emission Tunability
in a Flexible Carbon Dot Ionogel
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Abstract
Multicolor
luminescent materials are of immense importance nowadays,
while it still constitutes a challenge to achieve luminescence color
tunability, transparency, and flexibility at the same time. Here we
show how ultrasmall carbon dots (CDs) fluorescing strongly across
the visible spectrum can be surface functionalized and incorporated
into highly flexible hybrid materials by combination with ionic liquids
within silica gel networks to form CD-ionogels with properties promising
for fabrication of flexible displays and other optical technologies
without the use of any toxic materials. We demonstrate how the emission
from such hybrid materials can be tuned across a large range of the
Commission Internationale de l’Enclairage (CIE) display gamut
giving full-color performance. We highlight how the rich ladder of
emissive states attributable to organic functional groups and CD surface
functionalization supports a smooth sequential multiple self-absorption
tuning mechanism to red shift continuously from blue emitting n-π*
transitions down through the lower energy states