Synthesis and Characterization of Copper (I) Oxide and Zinc Oxide Quantum Dot Materials and the Development of New Fluorescent Fibre Composites

摘要

New fluorescent composites of Cu_2O and ZnO quantum dots with wool and paper fibres for potential use in tuneable photoluminescent coloured textiles and packaging and labelling papers, have been developed. Cu_2O quantum dots were synthesised by a wet chemical method to produce nanocubes of about 100 nm in size comprising an assemblage of small spherical nanocrystals (5 nm) with a super lattice structure. A sol-gel method was developed to synthesise ZnO quantum dots as polycrystalline particles 50 - 300 nm in size, similarly comprising agglomerations of small 10-12 nm spherical and ellipsoidal nanocrystals. ZnO quantum dot composites with wool and paper fibres were prepared by forming the quantum dots in the chemical medium surrounding the fibres and utilising cross linking reactions to bind them to the wool fibres. When 8-Hydroxyquinoline was used as a linker, it influenced and enhanced the photoluminescence properties of the ZnO wool and paper fibre composites significantly.