Solid-state fluorescent nitrogen doped graphene quantum dots with yellow emission for white light-emitting diodes

Abstract Light-emitting graphene quantum dots (GQDs) are widely investigated due to their distinct merits. However, GQDs generally suffer from aggregation-induced luminescence quenching, which means they are highly emissive in a solution state with uniform dispersion but dramatically quenched in a solid or aggregated state. This problem significantly limits the application of GQDs, partially in the solid-state light-emitting devices. In this report, we successfully developed a simple and efficient hydrothermal method for the production of nitrogen doped graphene quantum dots (N-GQDs) with strong solid-state fluorescence (SSF) by using citric acid and o-Phenylenediamine as precursors. Under the 365 nm UV light illumination, the produced N-GQDs in an aqueous state exhibit blue color, with a quantum yield of 58%. As the concentration of N-GQDs increases, the photoluminescence exhibits an obvious red-shift from blue to yellow. For the N-GQDs in solid state, yellow luminescence with a high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of 28% is achieved under the 405 nm excitation. Finally, via the simple adjustment of thickness and the concentration of N-GQDs in blue emitting InGaN chips, color converter is enabled by constructing white light-emitting diode (WLED) device with improved color rendering index (CRI) and correlated color temperature (CCT).