Interrogating the photoluminescent properties of carbon dots using quantitative 13C NMR combined with systematic photobleaching

In this work, molecular-level events accompanying the photobleaching of carbon dots (CDs) synthesized from ethylenediamine and citric acid (CACDs) were identified using solution-phase NMR. By combining quantitative 13 C NMR data with fluorescence measurements we show that this new approach is capable of identifying not only molecular fluorophores in CACDs, but also their contribution to the overall CACD fluorescence and their relative photostability. Specifically, imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine-7-carboxylic acid (IPCA) is found to be the dominant (84 %) species responsible for fluorescence in CACDs along with a second undetermined source, most likely associated with the aromatic core which is significantly (approximately 20 times) more photostable than IPCA. The presence of these two fluorescent species with different photostabilities rationalizes not only the photobleaching kinetics but also the evolution of the fluorescence spectrum during photobleaching Diffusion-ordered spectroscopy (DOSY) also reveals that all of the IPCA molecules are trapped within or covalently bound to the CACD, but are not present as isolated molecules freely rotating in solution. Singlet oxygen is confirmed as a key ROS responsible for photobleaching, with prototypical photoproducts identified from mass spectrometry studies of citrazinic acid. Quantitative 13 C NMR of CACDs is possible because their extremely high colloidal stability enables high concentrations (667 mg/mL) to remain stable in solution. The approach described in this study could be extended to identify the structure of chromophores in other CDs and interrogate molecular level processes that accompany CD sensing.