Phosphorescence of Carbon Dot: The Intrinsic Mechanism and Recent Progress

With the explosive development of research on phosphorescent carbon dots (CDs), it is of great significance to explore their mechanisms and establish the relationship among mechanism-structure-property. However, owing to the diversity of carbon dot structure, there is still no definite and unified model to describe them. In this review, the phosphorescent emission mechanism (including the promotion of ISC process and the stabilization of triplet exciton) and the factors affecting the property of CDs (including the carbon core state, surface state, the synergistic effect of the above-mentioned, and environmental factors) are summarized and elaborated. Then, the basic principles of the synthesis of modulated phosphorescent CDs are also summarized and their application fields are introduced. The full text is committed to finding out the shortcomings of current research through reference, finally summarizing problems, and putting forward prospects.