Our research lab at The University of Western Ontario focuses on 4 research themes: scanning electrochemical microscopy of live cells and corrosion processes, ionic liquids as novel electrolytes, electrochemiluminescence or electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) and solar cells. Herein, we demonstrate our progresses on graphene quantum dots for ECL and white light-emitting electrochemical cells.<br/>ECL is the process in which electrogenerated radicals form excited species that emit light without the need for an external light source (Struct. Bonding 2005, 118, 1; J. Electrochem. Soc. 2016, 163, H3116). ECL is a powerful analytical technique that is fast, highly sensitive and selective, requires low quantity.<br/>Ding <i>et al.</i> demonstrated ECL of silicon QDs a decade ago (Science 2002, 296, 1293). Since then, a wide range of semiconductor QDs such as Ge, CdTe, CdSe, CdSe/ZnSe, and PbS, as well as carbon QDs have been investigated for the ECL in visible or near-infrared (NIR) region. Gold clusters and PbS QDs have been discovered to be efficient ECL emitters by the Ding group at Western (Acc. Chem. Res. 2017, 50, 218). However, in most cases, the inherent optical and electrochemical properties of these interesting materials do not translate into efficient ECL, due to the surface state induction effect and inefficient electron transfer rate. We report highly efficient ECL of graphene QDs in the presence of sulfate radical anion as an oxidative coreactant. The ECL mechanisms were elucidated by various electroanalytical methods (for instance, Carbon 2018, 129, 45). Light-emitting electrochemical cells of the graphene quantum dots will be anticipated for efficient and low cost white light emitting diodes.

Graphene quantum dots for electrochemiluminescence and light-emitting electrochemical cells

256th National Meeting (2018)

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