查看文章

Coal being the most abundant natural resource is used worldwide and shows graphite-like clusters. Here, for the first time, we report an innovative and cost-effective oxidative functionalization approach, followed by an acid-free and oxone oxidant-assisted solvothermal synthesis of graphene quantum dots from coal. This method involving the oxidative functionalization of coal was performed through the heat treatment of nitric acid, followed by an acid recovery process. Indeed, the solvothermal method used was entirely free from the utilization of strong acids, and involved a simple, eco-friendly, and salt-free purification process with a high production yield (∼45%). Due to the synergistic synthesis technique, our developed GQDs were found to exhibit a strong blue photoluminescence (PL) characteristic with a significantly high quantum yield (∼14.42%). High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM …