Colloidal synthesis using Ligand mediated surface engineering is a powerful approach to manifest the physical and chemical properties of quantum dots. [1,2] We present a colloidal synthesis method to attract high-quality carbon quantum dots with surface ligand-induced dual emission through a colloidal synthesis strategy. [3] The colloidal synthesis improved the quality of carbon dots in its size control and uniformity. The colloidal carbon dots showed the improved quantum yield and surface passivation induced dual emission. The results revealed the surface function and interactions.
Benefitting from the good optical and colloidal stability, a new class of van der Waals heterojunction photocatalyst, which is synthesized by hot-injection method, whereby carbon dots (CDs) are grown in situ on ZnSe nanoplatelets (NPLs), i.e., metal chalcogenide quantum wells. [4] The resultant organic-inorganic hybrid nanoparticles, CD-NPLs, are able to perform methanol dehydrogenation with the occurrence of α-C-H splitting and C-C coupling. The novel CD-based organic-inorganic semiconductor heterojunction is poised to enable the discovery of a host of new nano-hybrid photocatalysts with full tunability in the band structure, charge transfer, and divergent surface chemistry for guiding photoredox pathways and accelerating reaction rates.