Fullerene-Structural Carbon-Based Dots from C₆₀Molecules and their Optical Properties

Fullerene-structural carbon-based dots (f-CDs) are synthesized for the first time by chemically oxidizing fullerene molecules (C60) using concentrated HNO3. The lateral sizes of the f-CDs distribute in the range of 7–20 nm, and the heights mainly range from 0.4 to 1.3 nm with an average value of 0.7 nm. The presence of massive pentagonal carbon units makes the f-CDs different from most of graphitic-CDs in structure and morphology. The f-CDs exhibit unique luminescent properties such as photoluminescence (PL) and electrochemiluminescence. Based on the investigation of the UV–vis absorption and luminescent properties, a novel and reasonable model is proposed for the PL mechanism of f-CDs. Furthermore, the obtained f-CDs show low cytotoxicity and have potential application in cell imaging.