Citric Acid Based Carbon Dots with Amine Type Stabilizers: pH-Specific Luminescence and Quantum Yield Characteristics

We report the synthesis and spectroscopic characteristics of two different sets of carbon dots (CDs) formed by hydrothermal reaction between citric acid and polyethylenimine (PEI) or 2,3-diaminopyridine (DAP). Although the formation of amide-based species and the presence of citrazinic acid type derivates assumed to be responsible for a blue emission is confirmed for both CDs by elemental analysis, infrared spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry, a higher abundance of sp²-hybridized nitrogen is observed for DAP-based CDs, which causes a red-shift of the n-π* absorption band relative to the one of PEI-based CDs. These CD systems possess high photoluminescence quantum yields (QY) of ∼40% and ∼48% at neutral pH, demonstrating a possible tuning of the optical properties by the amine precursor. pH-Dependent spectroscopic studies revealed a drop in QY to < 9% (pH ∼ 1) and < 21% (pH ∼ 12) for both types of CDs under acidic and basic conditions. In contrast, significant differences in the pH-dependency of the n-π* transitions are found for both CD types which are ascribed to different (de)protonation sequences of the CD-specific fluorophores and functional groups using zeta potential analysis.