Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Easy Colourful Quantum Dots

Housane - 17-6-2020 at 14:17

Today I managed to make green carbon quantum dots by dissolving 3g of sucrose in 10ml of water and 1ml of 30% HCl was added to make it acidic. It was then heated at 80-90C for 10 minutes and the water was allowed to evaporate. After 5 mins the solution turned yellow and it got steadily darker. After the 10 mins a distinctly sweet our could be smelt.

It was take off the heat and allowed to cool. The remaining black solution was dissolved in 150ml of water and then filtered, a dark filtrate was collected. This was made neutral by addition of NaOH. These are quantum dots but to see them clearly i diluted them. In the pictures the range on the lower level is 2 fully concentrated then 5 vials going from 25% to 5% in 5% increments. Feel free to ask any questions. The glow is poor as the light is a cheap UV invisible ink pen, I will do better pictures on request.

Regards

Housane

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[Edited on 18-6-2020 by Housane]

More pictures

Housane - 17-6-2020 at 14:21



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Ubya - 17-6-2020 at 17:26

i have a request for you, could you check in a few months/a year if they still fluoresce the same?
i made some blue quantum dots via the hydrothermal method (pretty much the same thing you did but in a closed vessel and at 180°C instead of 90) a year and a half ago, and now the solution fluoresces green and it is much much fainter, i suspect that with time the nano particles aggregate somewhat, i would be interested to know how long it takes for yours

Housane - 18-6-2020 at 00:05

Yeah sure,I will do an update in a year or so

draculic acid69 - 18-6-2020 at 03:00

This sounds a lot like making levulinic acid.

mackolol - 18-6-2020 at 04:07

And what's the chemistry behind it. What chemical is formed by heating sugar with HCl and then neutralising it?

Housane - 18-6-2020 at 05:14

The idea is you are breaking down the carbon and then slowly reforming it in such a way that lots of tiny particles are formed and this is what changes the colour of the UV light. Thought emporium has a video about them. The acid slightly alters this. Others colours should be possible in Basic solutions and the colour may change depending on what acid is used, more exeprimatation I need to do

Housane - 18-6-2020 at 13:13

I think I have just made yellow quantum dots, I will post again when the solution is concentrated enough to get a good picture

wg48temp9 - 14-8-2020 at 14:21

While looking for a wiring diagram for my dishwasher, which I did not find, but I did find a paper describing how to make Doped/Co-Doped Carbon Quantum Dots. I thought others may find it useful so I am posting it in this thread.

Attachment: carbon-05-00024-v2.pdf (5.1MB)
This file has been downloaded 337 times

Housane - 11-10-2020 at 06:58

Ubya, I have just checked them and both the green and the yellow glow exactly the same as before