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. 2020 Jul 22;12(8):1626.
doi: 10.3390/polym12081626.

Polymeric Carbon Nitride Armored Centimeter-Wide Organic Droplets in Water for All-Liquid Heterophase Emission Technology

Qian Cao  1 , Baris Kumru  1
Affiliations

Polymeric Carbon Nitride Armored Centimeter-Wide Organic Droplets in Water for All-Liquid Heterophase Emission Technology

Qian Cao et al. Polymers (Basel). .

Abstract

High potential of emission chemistry has been visualized in many fields, from sensors and imaging to displays. In general, conjugated polymers are the top rankers for such chemistry, despite the fact that they bring solubility problems, high expenses, toxicity and demanding synthesis. Metal-free polymeric semiconductor graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) has been an attractive candidate for visible light-induced photocatalysis, and its emission properties have been optimized and explored recently. Herein, we present modified g-CN nanoparticles as organodispersible conjugated polymer materials to be utilized in a heterophase emission systems. The injection of a g-CN organic dispersion in aqueous polymer solution not only provides retention of the shape by Pickering stabilization of g-CN, but high intensity emission is also obtained. The heterophase all-liquid emission display can be further modified by the addition of simple conjugated organic molecules to the initial g-CN dispersion, which provides a platform for multicolor emission. We believe that such shape-tailored and stabilized liquid-liquid multicolor emission systems are intriguing for sensing, displays and photonics.

Keywords: all liquid displays; carbon nitride; carbon nitride interfaces; multicolor emission droplets; waterborne systems.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Photoluminescence (PL) spectra of CMp-vTA; (b) SEM image of CMp-vTA; (c) transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image of CMp-vTA nanosheets (scale bar corresponds to 50 nm).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Digital images of CMp-vTA/chloroform (CN/TCM) droplet in aqueous PEI solution at (a) pH = 2; (b) pH = 7; (c) pH = 9; (d) macroscopic ‘c’-shaped organic droplets; (e) fluorescent image of ‘c’-shaped organic droplets (f) fluorescent image of tilted glass vial containing ‘c’-shaped organic droplets. Scale bars correspond to 1 cm.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(a) Digital image of CMp-vTA/chloroform (CN/TCM) ‘c’-shaped droplets in aqueous PEI solution overnight (side view); (b) digital image of CMp-vTA/chloroform (CN/TCM) droplet in aqueous PEI solution at pH = 2 after 3 days (side view). Scale bars correspond to 1 cm.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Series of digital images under UV (a) CMp-vTA/chloroform (CN/TCM) dispersion and corresponding droplet (inlet); (b) CMp-vTA+anthracene/chloroform (CN-A/TCM) dispersion and corresponding droplet (inlet); (c) CMp-vTA+pyrene/chloroform (CN-P/TCM) dispersion and corresponding droplet (inlet); (d) CMp-vTA+ferrocene/chloroform (CN-P/TCM) dispersion and corresponding droplet (inlet); (e) droplets from inlets of b (bottom), c (top) and d (middle) together. Scale bars correspond to 1 cm. (f) UV-Vis spectra of utilized dispersions and (g) emission spectra of utilized dispersions.
Figure 5
Figure 5
(a) Digital and (b) fluorescent images of colored pattern with CN/TCM and CN-F/TCM in aqueous PEI solution; (c) Digital and (d) fluorescent images of colored ‘c’ pattern with CN-A/TCM and CN-F/TCM in aqueous PEI solution. Scale bars correspond to 1 cm.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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