Efficient UV emission from carbon dots derived from a green-tea extract

Emissive carbon dots (CDs) that are synthesized from biomass can be highly sustainable, but the reported number of biomass-derived CDs that emit in the UV range is low. Moreover, current commercial UV-emitting materials rely heavily on the use of non-sustainable resources, such as rare metals, heavy metals and petroleum chemicals. This yields that the development of efficient biomass-derived UV-CDs is desired. Here, we report on the hydrothermal conversion of a common green-tea extract (“Polyphenon 60”) into UV-CDs, which feature a PL peak wavelength of 384 nm, a full width at half maximum of 72 nm, and a photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of 17 % in water. By shifting to a lower-polarity solvent in the form of 3-phenoxyanisole, the PLQY is strongly enhanced to 81 %, the PL spectrum blue-shifted to 370 nm, while the maximum solubility is lowered. These observations support the notion that the UV-CDs feature aggregation-induced emission, and that they are endowed with hydrophilic surface groups. Moreover, the findings of excitation-wavelength-independent PL and a nanosecond-short emission lifetime reveal that it is a single distinct fluorophore that produces the UV emission. We finally report preliminary results that imply that the UV-CDs exhibit potential for inhibiting the proliferation of cancer cells.