A Facile and Versatile Synthesis of Highly Luminescent Carbon Dots-on-Glass

Highly luminescent carbon nanodots (C-dots) were prepared by microwave-assisted pyrolysis of acrylic acid and 1,2-ethylenediamine used as a carbon source and as a passivation agent for the amino groups, respectively. The surface of C-dots was functionalized with silyl groups by a reaction with triethoxy(3-glycidyloxypropyl)silane to attach to a glass substrate. We successfully prepared C-dot glass by simply immersing a glass substrate into the C-dot solution and subsequent baking. The C-dots were covalently attached to the surface of glass and were very stable to repeated washing with water and organic solvent, maintaining their initial fluorescence. We confirmed the surface-immobilized C-dots and resultant C-dots-on-glass by investigating fluorescence, UV, and IR spectroscopy.