Covalent Modification of Graphene Oxide with Carbazole Groups for Laser Protection

Carbon Dioxide Capture on Oxygen- and Nitrogen-Containing Carbon Quantum Dots

To address global climate change challenges, an effective strategy involves capturing CO2 directly at its source using a sustainable, low-cost adsorbent. Carbon quantum dots (CQDs), derived from lignin, are employed to modify the internal surface of an activated carbon adsorbent, enabling selective adsorption based on electrostatic interactions. By manipulating charge distribution on CQDs through either doping (nitrogen) or functionalization (amine, carboxyl, or hydroxyl groups), the study confirms, through classical molecular dynamics simulations, the potential to adjust binding strength, adsorption capacity, and selectivity for CO2 over N2 and O2. For simulations with a single component gas, maximum selectivities of 3.6 and 6.7 are shown for CO2/N2 and CO2/O2, respectively, at 300 K. Simulations containing a wet flue gas indicate that the presence of water increases the CO2/N2 and CO2/O2 selectivities. The highest CO2/H2O selectivity obtained from a CQD/graphite system is 4.3. A comparison of graphite and lignin-based carbon composite (LBCC) substrates demonstrated that LBCC has enhanced adsorptive capacity. The roughness of the LBCC substrate prevents the diffusion of the CQD on the surface. This computational study takes another step toward identifying optimal CQD atomic architecture, dimensions, doping, and functionalization for a large-scale CQD/AC adsorbent solution for CO2 capture.

Graphene Oxide-Based Silico-Phosphate Composite Films for Optical Limiting of Ultrashort Near-Infrared Laser Pulses

The development of graphene-based materials for optical limiting functionality is an active field of research. Optical limiting for femtosecond laser pulses in the infrared-B (IR-B) (1.4-3 μm) spectral domain has been investigated to a lesser extent than that for nanosecond, picosecond and femtosecond laser pulses at wavelengths up to 1.1 μm. Novel nonlinear optical materials, glassy graphene oxide (GO)-based silico-phosphate composites, were prepared, for the first time to our knowledge, by a convenient and low cost sol-gel method, as described in the paper, using tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), H3PO4 and GO/reduced GO (rGO) as precursors. The characterisation of the GO/rGO silico-phosphate composite films was performed by spectroscopy (Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), Ultraviolet-Visible-Near Infrared (UV-VIS-NIR) and Raman) and microscopy (atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM)) techniques. H3PO4 was found to reduce the rGO dispersed in the precursor's solution with the formation of vertically agglomerated rGO sheets, uniformly distributed on the substrate surface. The capability of these novel graphene oxide-based materials for the optical limiting of femtosecond laser pulses at 1550 nm wavelength was demonstrated by intensity-scan experiments. The GO or rGO presence in the film, their concentrations, the composite films glassy matrix, and the film substrate influence the optical limiting performance of these novel materials and are discussed accordingly.

Synergistically Enhanced Optical Limiting Property of Graphene Oxide Hybrid Materials Functionalized with Pt Complexes

Recently, graphene-based materials have become well-known nonlinear optical materials for the potential application of laser protection. Two new graphene oxide-platinum  complex (GO-Pt) hybrid materials (GO-Pt-1, GO-Pt-2) have been fabricated through covalent modification and electrostatic adsorption of different Pt complexes with GO. The structural and photophysical properties of the resultant hybrid materials were studied. The nonlinear optical properties and optical power limiting (OPL) performance of Pt complexes, GO, and GO-Pt hybrid materials were investigated by using Z-scan measurements at 532 nm. At the same transmittance, the results illustrate that functionalization of GO makes GO-Pt hybrid materials possess better nonlinear optical properties and OPL performance than individual Pt complexes and GO due to a combination of nonlinear scattering, nonlinear absorption, and photoinduced electron and energy transfer between GO and Pt complex moieties. Furthermore, the nonlinear optics and OPL performance of GO-Pt-2 are better than those of GO-Pt-1, due to not only the excellent optical limiting of Pt-2 and more molecules per area of GO but also the way of combination of Pt-2 and GO.

"Click" on Alkynylated Carbon Quantum Dots: An Efficient Surface Functionalization for Specific Biosensing and Bioimaging

Surface functionalization is an essential pre requisite for wide and specific applications of nanoparticles such as photoluminescent (PL) carbon quantum dots (CQDs), but it remains a major challenge. In this report, alkynylated CQDs, prepared from carboxyl-rich CQDs through amidation with propargylamine in the presence of 1,1'-carbonyldiimidazole, were modified efficiently with azido molecular beacon DNA through a copper(I)-catalyzed alkyne-azide cycloaddition reaction (CuAAC). As a proof-of-concept, the DNA-modified CQDs are then bonded with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs, 5 nm) through a gold-sulfur bond. Owing to the emission enhancement, this complex can then be applied to the recognition of a single-base- mismatched target. The same functionalizing strategy applied to click the alkynylated CQDs with a nuclear localization sequence (NLS) peptide showed that the NLS-modified CQDs could target the nuclei specifically. These results indicate that surface functionalization of CQDs through a nonstoichiometric copper chalcogenide nanocrystal- (nsCuCNC-) catalyzed click reaction is efficient, and has significant potential in the fields of biosensing and bioimaging.

Covalent functionalization of graphene oxide with porphyrin and porphyrin incorporated polymers for optical limiting

A novel porphyrinated polymer was synthesized and utilized to covalently functionalize graphene oxide, which exhibited superior optical nonlinearities to individual components due to RSA, NLS, and PET/ET behavior.

Functionalization of graphene by a TPE-containing polymer using nitrogen-based nucleophiles

Through the nitrogen-centered anion reaction of PCT and GO, two new hybrids, RGO-PCT-i and RGO-PCT-s, were successfully prepared and applied as potential optical limiting materials.