Chaos to order: an eco-friendly way to synthesize graphene quantum dots

Abstract

We developed a rapid, simple and pollution-free method to synthesize highly ordered graphene quantum dots (GQDs), which adopts cheap and readily available activated carbon and environmentally friendly hydrogen peroxide as raw materials through simple microwave and hydrothermal treatment, and the fine products are obtained as uniformly sized particles. The proposed strategy enables the difficult transformation from amorphous carbon to highly ordered GQDs for the first time while completely avoiding the use of concentrated sulphuric acid, concentrated nitric acid and other caustic reagents, and the purification procedure is relatively simple. Furthermore, the as-prepared products possess low toxicity, high biological compatibility and good fluorescence properties, which are excellent properties for bio-labelling applications.