Carbon dots (CD) are an emerging nanoscale carbon-based material that have garnered significant attention because of their light absorbing and fluorescence properties. They have attracted attention as fluorescent probes and in bio-imaging and sensing applications. They exhibit strong, stable blue photoluminescence with diffuse absorbance in the UV and near visible region of the solar spectrum. These nanomaterials are usually around 2-10 nm in diameter and are considered quasi-spherical. They have been shown to be water soluble, non-toxic, are considered biocompatible and especially valued because their ability to be synthesized from sustainable carbonaceous starting materials. Notably, the use of CD as a photosensitizer in hybrid photocatalytic systems has inspired much more exploration into the use of CD in energy applications. Despite this early report, few molecular catalyst species have a low enough overpotential to be sensitized efficiently by CD due to their low reducing power. Efforts to incorporate single atom binding sites into the CD core have also been reported. Our progress towards the synthesis of CD that incorporate N4-metal binding sites (such as cyclam, porphyrin ring structures) into the CD core and decorating them onto the CD surface will be presented. The effects these changes have on the photophysical properties and their ability to generate reducing equivalents will be examined using a variety of spectroscopic techniques including steady state and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. We hope to correlate the observed changes in photophysical properties with their effects on catalytic performance in a sacrificial photocatalytic system for the generation of solar fuels.

Incorporating metal binding sites into and onto carbon dots for enhanced photocatalytic solar fuel generation

Fall 2022 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch in mid-September.

ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.