Biosynthesis of the Narrowband Deep-Red Emissive Carbon Nanodots from Eggshells
Yuan Deng, Cheng‐Long Shen, Wenbo Zhao, Guangsong Zheng, Fuhang Jiao, Qing Lou, Kai-Kai Liu, Chongxin Shan, Lin Dong
Abstract
Safely recycling high-performance fluorescent materials from waste is an appealing route to reduce environmental pollution. This work presents one facile approach to massively producing high-performance carbon nanodots (CNDs) from discarded cooked eggshells. The obtained CND solution exhibits two excitation-independent deep-red emission peaks at 632 and 700 nm with a high photoluminescence quantum yield of 19.98% and a narrow full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 16.2 nm. The deep-red emission of the CNDs originates from the porphyrin-like structure in the CNDs, which are formed in the eggshells and further carbonized by cooking. In addition, the deep-red emission and unprecedented narrow FWHM of the CNDs deliver promising applications in bioimaging as an imaging agent. The recycled deep-red emissive CNDs pave a new strategy to design nanomaterials from biomass and provide a novel green pathway to recycle high-performance fluorescent nanomaterials sustainably.