One-step fabrication of photoluminescent SiC quantum dots through a radiation technique

Abstract

Silicon carbide nanocrystals have been widely researched and applied in bio-imaging, drug delivery, dental implants and relative fields. However, the challenges in the synthesis technology of silicon carbide nanocrystals are still restricting their practical applications. Therefore, we investigated the fabrication of photoluminescent (PL) silicon carbide quantum dots (SiC QDs) through ionic liquid-based microemulsions combined with a radiation technique. The high steady blue PL SiC QDs were obtained with the largest quantum yield of 12.39% and an indirect energy gap of about 5.14 eV. Radiation doses and silane coupling agent concentrations had almost no effect on the size and PL properties of SiC QDs, but strongly affected their quantum yields and lifetimes. The droplet size of ionic liquid-based microemulsions showed great potential applications in regulating the size and PL properties of SiC QDs. Through this work, one simple, high-rate, clean, scalable strategy has been provided for synthesizing PL SiC QDs, which is meaningful to promote the practical applications of SiC QDs in the future.