The glutathione-capped gold nanoclusters based on doping zinc ion with aggregation-induced emission enhancement

摘要

Heavy-metal-containing quantum dots (QDs), such as CdSe-based quantum dots (QDs) have been applied to light-conversion nano-phosphors due to tunable emission and pure colors. Unfortunately, those QDs involve toxic elements and synthesize in a hazardous halogenated solvent. Therefore, Eco-friendly gold nano-clusters (AuNCs@GSH) in solution phase have gained much attention for promising applications in biophotonics. For the first time, we explore the feasibility of aqueous-solution-processed AuNCs@GSH as luminescent species for promising applications in "green" luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) by investigating their photophysical properties. Due to ligand-to-metal charge-transfer (LMCT) state, we found that such "green" LSCs formed by Zn-AuNCs@GSH dispersed in a polymer matrix exhibit large Stokes shift and small scattering losses. Compared to AuNCs@GSH, the Zn-AuNCs@GSH dispersed in a polymer matrix could suppress non-radiative recombination rates, inducing the enhancement of luminescence and the increase of PL-QY from 2% to 40%.