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Surface state modulation of red emitting carbon


dots for white light-emitting diodes†
Cite this: J. Mater. Chem. C, 2018,
6, 12631
Kang Yuan,a Xinghua Zhang, *a Ruohan Qin,a Xuefeng Ji,a Yahui Cheng, b

Lanlan Li, a Xiaojing Yang, a


Zunming Lua and Hui Liu*c

Controlling surface states using different functional groups is an effective and facile way to modulate
the fluorescence of carbon dots (CDs), but the underlying mechanisms are still unclear and urgent to
solve. In this work, we synthesized red emitting CDs and achieved multiple emission states (red, green
and blue emission) by tailoring the surface states with different amino groups. In particular, the
luminescence mechanism and the role of surface states were studied in detail. It is found that the
multiple emission states are related to the speciation of nitrogen (pyridinic N, pyrrolic N, graphitic N and
amino N) on the surface of CDs, of which the fluorophore formed by the deformation of
p-phenylenediamine contributes to the red emission, pyridinic N is responsible for the green emission
Received 4th September 2018, state, and pyrrolic N enhances the blue emission. A possible energy level diagram was proposed to
Accepted 16th October 2018 disclose the electron transition process and relative levels induced by different surface groups on CDs.
DOI: 10.1039/c8tc04468f In addition, the modulated CDs with multiple emission states can be used as single light converters to
fabricate a white light-emitting diode, which has white light color coordinates of (0.31, 0.32), a high
1
rsc.li/materials-c color rendering index (CRI) of 85, a luminous efficiency of 8.8 lm W and good stability.

1 Introduction states.17 The quantum size effect is not easy to use compared
with the semiconductor quantum dots, since it is more difficult
As a new type of fluorescent carbon material, carbon dots (CDs) to control the size of CDs. Fortunately, the two latter lumines-
have attracted broad scientific interest due to their unique cence mechanisms provide a facile method to modulate the
properties.1 Compared with conventional semiconductor fluorescence of CDs through controlling the surface states with
quantum dots,2 CDs are superior to dye-based fluorescence different functional groups.18 Different functional groups
probes for imaging and sensing due to the advantages of can form various surface states during the formation of CDs.
excellent biocompatibility, low toxicity, tunable photolumines- Traditionally, most researchers introduced a variety of func-
cence (PL) and less photobleaching.3–6 They have been applied tional groups in the preparation of CDs, which is not conducive
in various fields, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs),7,8 water to studying the impact of specific functional groups on the
splitting,9,10 and photocatalysis.11,12 Since the discovery of CDs,13 surface state. In addition, the surface state is a vague concept
different luminescence mechanisms of CDs have been proposed. for the luminescence mechanism. It is significant to further
Although there is no uniform explanation, the luminescence elaborate the meanings of surface states and deeply investigate
mechanism of CDs is generally related to the quantum size the effects of surface states formed by specific functional
effect,14,15 recombination of electron–hole pairs,16 or surface groups on luminescence properties.
Amino groups are very useful in modulating the lumines-
a
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, cence properties of CDs because nitrogen not only can be used
Tianjin 300130, China. E-mail: zhangxinghua@hebut.edu.cn as a doping element, but can also form a variety of surface
b
Department of Electronics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China
c
states on CDs, such as pyridinic N, pyrrolic N, amino N and
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072,
China. E-mail: hui_liu@tju.edu.cn
so on, which greatly affects the luminescence properties
† Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Emission and excitation of CDs.19,20 Various materials and methods have been used to
spectra of p-CDs, EDA-CDs, PEI-CDs, and pro-CDs. Photoluminescence spectra of synthesize N-doped CDs, and the luminescence properties of
the p-CDs in different solvents excited by 365 nm. Emission spectra of the CDs are influenced by the amounts, ratios, or speciation of
prepared CDs by changing pH values (1–7) with addition of HCl. Emission spectra
doped nitrogen. Dong et al.16 proposed that nitrogen doping
of the prepared CDs by changing pH values (7–14) with addition of NaOH. The
UV-Vis absorption and FTIR spectra of p-CDs, EDA-CDs, PEI-CDs and pro-CDs,
generated a new surface state, which would increase the
respectively. The atomic percentages of four kinds of CDs. See DOI: 10.1039/ radiative recombination rate of electrons as a recombination
c8tc04468f center. Xu et al.21 compared several kinds of N-doped CDs and

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found that nitrogen existed in the –NO3 form which contributed was added to the prepared solution. PEI-CDs, p-CDs and pro-CDs
little to the radiative recombination and only nitrogen bonding to were synthesized in the same way.
carbon could really enhance the emission of CDs. Qian et al.22,23
prepared a series of CDs and the results suggested that amino and 2.3 Fabrication of the white LED
pyrrolic N could promote radiative recombination by generating Since the pro-CDs have blue, green and red emissions under
more protonation processes or aromatic structures, and these 365 nm excitation, we selected a UV LED chip as a light source
were responsible for the improvement in the luminescence to excite the pro-CDs and realize white light emission.
properties. Sarker et al.24 revealed that the presence of graphitic
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To fabricate the white LEDs based on pro-CDs as a single light


N could cause red-shifting of CDs due to the electron-doping converter, the specific steps are as follows. First, 9 mL pro-CDs
effect. A large number of studies indicate that the effects solution (1.41 g L 1) was dried to obtain solid powders. Next,
of nitrogen species on photoluminescence properties are signi- the pro-CDs powders were dissolved in 9 mL absolute ethanol
ficant for improving the performance of CDs. However, the and mixed with 9 mL epoxy in a water bath at 60 1C for 4 h
influence of nitrogen on the fluorescence properties has accompanied by stirring. During this time, ethanol will gene-
not been fully understood, and the chemical speciation and rally be removed. After that, 3 mL curing agent was added into
functions of doped nitrogen have only received limited the above solution and stirred for more than 10 minutes at
attention. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify the effects of the room temperature. Then, the above uniform mixture was added
speciation of nitrogen, especially the effects of their speciation to a self-made mold with an ultraviolet LED chip (365 nm), and
on the surface of CDs on the luminescence properties, which is cured at room temperature for 12 h. At last, the pro-CDs based
beneficial for understanding the luminescence mechanism and white LED was obtained.
the meaning of surface states.
In this work, we used a one-pot hydrothermal method 2.4 Measurements
to synthesize N-doped fluorescent CDs with tunable surface
Morphologies of the CDs were characterized using a transmission
states, employing p-phenylenediamine and typical raw materials
electron microscope (TEM, JEOL 2100). X-ray photoelectron
with various types of amino group to achieve controllable emis-
spectra (XPS) of CDs were obtained with a PHI1600EXCA photo-
sion of CDs. It was found that nitrogen related speciation is
electron spectrometer. A spectrometer (Bruker, WQF-410) was
related to red, green and blue emitting states. Red emitting states
used to obtain Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra of CDs.
are attributed to the fluorophore formed by the deformation
The ultraviolet visible (UV-Vis) absorption spectra were carried
of p-phenylenediamine on CDs. Pyridinic N is responsible for
out on a spectrophotometer (Hitachi, U-3900H). The excitation
the green emission state and pyrrolic N can enhance the blue
and emission spectra of CDs were collected using a steady and
emission. Furthermore, the pro-CDs (p-phenylenediamine and
transient state spectrophotometer (Horiba, FL-3-22). In addition,
L-proline as carbon/nitrogen sources) with multiple emission
the emission spectra of the pro-CDs based white LED under
states are suitable for fabricating white LED devices. The
different currents were also collected with the steady and transient
pro-CDs based LED device emits bright white light with CIE
state spectrophotometer, and the LED tester was used to provide
coordinates of (0.31, 0.32) and a high CRI of 85, and it also has
the power. The other parameters such as color temperature (CCT),
excellent stability.
color coordinates and color rendering index (CRI) were obtained
with a spectra irradiance illuminometer (Konica Minolta, CL-500A).
The luminous efficiency of the pro-CDs based white LED was
2 Experimental measured using a spectroradiometer (SpectraScan PR-650).
2.1 Materials
p-Phenylenediamine (PDDA) and ethylenediamine (EDA) were
obtained from Damao Chemical Reagent Factory (Tianjin, 3 Results and discussion
China). L-Proline was purchased from Tianjin Guangfu Fine 3.1 Surface state modulation of CDs
Chemical Research Institute. Polyethyleneimine (PEI) was To investigate the effects of amino groups on surface emission
bought from Aladdin Company. states, different raw materials with amino groups were used to
prepare carbon dots (Fig. 1). PDDA was used to synthesize the
2.2 Synthesis of CDs CDs with multiple emission states, and the addition of EDA,
The CDs (p-CDs (carbon source is PDDA), EDA-CDs (PDDA PEI or L-proline was selected to modulate the surface states of
and EDA), PEI-CDs (PDDA and PEI) and pro-CDs (PDDA and CDs during the synthesis process. As shown in Fig. 2, the four
L-proline)) with different surface states were synthesized using samples are well-dispersed nanoparticles with similar sizes.
a hydrothermal method. For the synthesis of EDA-CDs, According to the TEM images, the p-CDs (Fig. 2a), EDA-CDs
0.25 mmol PDDA and 0.5 mmol EDA were added to 60 mL (Fig. 2b), and PEI-CDs (Fig. 2c) have an average diameter
deionized water. Next, the reaction solution was transferred to a of 6.0 nm, and the average particle size of pro-CDs (Fig. 2d)
15 mL Teflon lined stainless steel autoclave and it was kept at is about 7.5 nm. Therefore, the difference in luminescence
180 1C for 12 h. After that, the autoclave was cooled down to properties for the four samples should not originate from the
room temperature naturally, then an equal volume of ethanol quantum size effect.

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p-CDs, the EDA-CDs (Fig. 3b) display only one emission peak
centered at 508 nm under different excitation wavelengths and
the emission peak intensity increases with the increase in EDA
amounts (as shown in Fig. S1a, ESI†). It is observed that the
EDA-CDs show excitation properties before 460 nm excitation,
which is different from the p-CDs with excitation independence.
The introduction of EDA greatly changes the emission states of
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CDs, which may be attributed to the deformation of the amino


groups. PEI with a large number of imino groups was also used to
modulate the surface emission states of p-CDs. From Fig. 3c, one
Fig. 1 Synthesis of CDs with different emission states using a hydro- can see that PEI-CDs have similar photoluminescence properties as
thermal method. EDA-CDs except for an extra emission peak at 460 nm. In addition,
the emission intensity of PEI-CDs also increases with the increase
in PEI amounts (shown in Fig. S1b, ESI†). Comparing the differ-
ences between EDA and PEI, the blue emission state is probably
due to the presence of the imine group. To further prove the
assumption, L-proline with imino groups was chosen to modulate
the blue emission states. As shown in Fig. 3d, the intensity of the
blue emission peak at 460 nm is comparable to the intensity of
the red emission peak under 365 nm excitation. Compared with
the red emission, the blue emission intensity is increased and
reaches the maximum at a molar ratio of PDDA to L-proline of
1 : 1.25 with increasing L-proline (shown in Fig. S1c, ESI†), demon-
strating the effects of imino groups on blue emission states.
Excitation spectra of these CDs are shown in Fig. S2 (ESI†), and
are consistent with the change of emission spectra.
Fig. 2 TEM images and the size distributions (inset) of (a) p-CDs,
(b) EDA-CDs, (c) PEI-CDs, and (d) pro-CDs. The four kinds of CDs have similar sizes and distinct photo-
luminescence properties, which indicates that the changes
of luminescence mainly originated from the surface groups
3.2 Spectral properties of CDs instead of the quantum size effect. Fig. S3 (ESI†) shows that
Fig. 3 shows the emission spectra of p-CDs, EDA-CDs, PEI-CDs, p-CDs exhibit various emission spectra in different polar solvents
and pro-CDs samples under different excitation wavelengths. under 365 nm excitation. The emission peaks of p-CDs are
It can be seen that p-CDs (Fig. 3a) have three emission peaks located at 522, 534, 556 and 600 nm in toluene, dichloromethane,
centered at 460 nm, 520 nm and 605 nm under 365 nm acetone and ethanol, respectively. The polar dependence of the
excitation, and the red emission exhibits excitation-independent emission for p-CDs suggests that the emission of prepared CDs is
features. When EDA with two amino groups was introduced to the mainly related to the surface states.25 In order to further confirm
the luminescence origin of CDs, the effects of pH values on
luminescence of the four CDs were investigated. As shown in
Fig. S4 and S5 (ESI†), the emission peak intensity of CDs
gradually decreased with increasing pH value or decreasing pH
value from 7, which further proved that the fluorescence of
prepared CDs is mainly related to the surface structure of
CDs.26 The detailed effects of pH values on prepared CDs will
be discussed below. Taking into account the fact that the raw
material contains only amino groups, the multiple emission
states of CDs are mainly related to the amino groups and their
deformation.
The UV-Vis absorption spectra of the four kinds of CDs
display several absorption peaks/bands (Fig. S6, ESI†). p-CDs
show characteristic absorption bands at 225–282 nm and
340–502 nm, which are assigned to the p - p* transition of
the aromatic CQC bonds, and the n - p* transition of the
aromatic sp2 system containing CQO and CQN bonds,
Fig. 3 Fluorescence emission spectra of (a) p-CDs, (b) EDA-CDs, (c) PEI-CDs,
and (d) pro-CDs solutions under various excitation wavelengths. Insets
respectively.27 This indicates that the different energy states
show the photographs of the four kinds of CDs solution under 365 nm resulted from functional surface states. EDA-CDs and PEI-CDs
excitation. exhibit similar absorption peaks centered at 241 nm, 304 nm,

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and 404 nm, except for the peak above 404 nm of PEI-CDs with Table 1 The nitrogen speciation percentages of four kinds of CDs
a long absorption tail and the absence of an absorption band at
Pyridinic N Amino N Pyrrolic N Graphitic N
500 nm. Compared with p-CDs, pro-CDs show the same absorp- Sample (atom%) (atom%) (atom%) (atom%)
tion peaks at 225–282 nm and 405 nm, but pro-CDs exhibit
p-CDs 27 61 12 —
obvious absorption peaks at 504 nm instead of the broad peak EDA-CDs 97 — 3 —
of p-CDs. PEI-CDs 53 36 11 —
These absorption changes disclose that surface states have pro-CDs 35 18 18 29
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been changed through adding different amino-containing


precursors, which significantly affects the photoluminescence 398.4, 399.2, 400.1 and 401.1 eV, corresponding to pyridinic,
performance of CDs. amino, pyrrolic and graphitic N,25,30,31 respectively.
Table 1 gives nitrogen speciation percentages of four kinds
of CDs. Here p-CDs can serve as a reference sample with three
3.2 Chemical bonding states of CDs emission states for different surface structures including
To analyze the elemental composition and chemical bonding pyridinic, amino, pyrrolic and graphitic N. When the EDA
of prepared CDs, FTIR and XPS spectra were investigated. was introduced to form EDA-CDs, the disappearance of amino
As shown in Fig. S7 (ESI†), all CDs display characteristic N and decrease of pyrrolic N are related to the change of red
IR peaks centered at 831 (C–H stretching), 1043–1350 (C–O and blue emission states, and the sample has only one green
stretching), 1403 (C–N stretching), 1514 (CQC stretching), 1642 emission state with drastic increasing of pyridine N, which
(CQO/CQN stretching) and 3450 (–NH2 stretching) cm 1.20,28 reveals that pyridine N should be responsible for the green
The FTIR results suggest that the amounts of chemical bonds emission. The PEI-CDs also prove that pyridine N contributes to
result in the changes of emission since the four samples consist the green emission owing to the highest content of pyridine N
of the same types of chemical bonds. in the PEI-CDs. Moreover, the PEI-CDs show a blue emission
According to the XPS spectra (Fig. 4), all samples contain C, peak in addition to the green emission accompanied with the
N and O elements. As shown in Table S1 (ESI†), oxygen increase of pyrrolic N compared with EDA-CDs, disclosing that
amounts are increased from p-CDs to pro-CDs, but the emis- pyrrolic N is related to the blue emission state. Specifically,
sion spectra of the samples do not have a red shift with graphitic N is the dominant nitrogen configuration in pro-CDs
the increasing degree of surface oxidation, which is different while the photoluminescence of pro-CDs is similar to that of
from the luminescence mechanisms where the band gap is p-CDs except for the enhancement of blue emission due to the
decreased with an increasing number of oxygen atoms in the further increase of pyrrolic N, which suggests that graphitic N
structure.29 We have demonstrated that the emission of the plays an important role in enhancing the PL in CDs instead of
CDs originates from the surface states, so the changes of leading to significantly red-shifted light absorption.32 Based on
luminescence spectra are mainly attributed to the N related the above discussion, it can be concluded that luminescence
surface states. Fine scan XPS spectra of C 1s and N 1s for the of prepared CDs mainly originated from the surface states,
CDs are given in Fig. 4(e–h) and (i–l), respectively. The C 1s and tunable nitrogen speciation is the essential cause for the
spectra of CDs can be well-fitted into four curves centered at change of luminescence properties.
284.3, 285.1, 286.4 and 288.1 eV, which corresponded to
C–C/CQC, C–N, C–O and CQN/CQO bonds, respectively. The 3.3 Schematic structures and energy levels of CDs
N 1s spectra can be fitted well with four curves centered at Combining all of the factors, the possible structures of the four
types of CDs are given in Fig. 5, which reveals apparent
differences of N doping. As shown in Fig. 5a, when forming
p-CDs, the surface amino groups of PDDA will produce different
groups, eventually forming multiple emission states on the
surface of CDs. Some of the N atoms will form pyridinic N and
pyrrolic N on the surface. In addition, PDDA or its deformation
will be connected to the surface of the carbon core to form a
luminescent center, which may be the origin of the red light
emission. As a part of the molecular state, amino groups reflect
changes of this molecular state because the red emission state is
the most sensitive to pH values and the intensity of red emission
is related to the number of amino groups. The other part of the
benzene ring becomes a broken chain connecting to the CDs in a
hydrothermal reaction.
From the XPS of EDA-CDs, the emission state of the EDA-CDs
Fig. 4 XPS spectra (full survey) of (a) p-CDs, (b) EDA-CDs, (c) PEI-CDs,
and (d) pro-CDs. C 1s spectra and fitting results of (e) p-CDs, (f) EDA-CDs,
becomes a single green emission. Meanwhile, the amounts of
(g) PEI-CDs, and (h) pro-CDs. N 1s spectra and fitting curves of (i) p-CDs, pyridinic N are obviously increased and the amino groups
(j) EDA-CDs, (k) PEI-CDs, and (l) pro-CDs. almost disappear. This indicates that the introduction of EDA

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Fig. 6 The energy level diagram of nitrogen-related surface states


for CDs.

Fig. 5 Schematic structure of prepared CDs with multiple emission states.


from HOMO levels to LUMO levels when the excitation energy is
higher than 3.40 eV (l = 365 nm). Then the N related speciation
can transform the original heterocyclic N to pyridinic N, and as a rearrangement of the irradiation center results in blue,
these changes are closely related to green emission (Fig. 5b). green and red emission from CDs. Specifically, the irradiation
Similar to EDA-CDs, PEI-CDs (Fig. 5c) have an increase in center formed by pyrrolic N emits blue light (l = 460 nm) as
pyridine N due to its amino groups on the long-chain branch. the excitation energy is B3.35 eV (l = 370 nm). Green light
At the same time, it is easier for imino structures to form (l = 508 nm) is emitted from the irradiation center formed by
pyrrolic N, and blue emission has also been enhanced. As we pyridinic N. Red light emission (l = 605 nm) may be formed
can see, additional amino groups result in an increase of by the deformation of PDDA, which can be excited by 2.46 eV
pyridine N with strong green emission and the imino groups (l = 504 nm).
are beneficial to form pyrrolic N with enhanced blue emission.
Moreover, L-proline is used to introduce only imino groups 3.4 Performance of a pro-CDs based white LED
(Fig. 5d), and the carboxyl groups reacted with basic amino We have synthesized different CDs with multiple emission
groups to make it connect to the surface of CDs, which states and modulated the emission peaks and intensities by
increases the amounts of pyrrolic N, leading to the enhance- changing the N related groups. From Fig. 3d, it can be seen that
ment of blue emission. In addition, the contents of graphitic the pro-CDs have blue, green, and red emission peaks centered
N are increased with the introduction of L-proline, which also at 460 nm, 500 nm and 605 nm under 365 nm with CIE
enhances the luminescence intensity of CDs. coordinates of (0.34, 0.33), which makes them suitable for
The results of acid–base treatment can further confirm the fabricating white LED devices. Unfortunately, pro-CDs possess
rationality of the structure of prepared CDs (Fig. S4 and S5, aggregation-induced luminescence quenching in the solid
ESI†). Under alkaline conditions, the protonation degree of N state. To solve this problem, people embed fluorescent dopants
species decreases with increased pH values from 7 to 14, and in solid matrices such as BaSO4,33 silica xerogel,34 organically
the possible proton transfer from the protonated nitrogen to modified silicate gel glasses35,36 and PMMA37,38 to realize solid-
the conjugated carbon structure can enhance the fluorescence state fluorescence of CDs. The matrices actually act as media
of the CDs, thus decreasing the emission intensity of p-CDs as like water. Here epoxy resin is chosen as the matrix because it
the pH value increases.23 Under acidic conditions, the influ- not only acts as media like water, but also is suitable for LED
ence of protonation is not dominant, and the destruction of encapsulation. As shown in Fig. S8 (ESI†), the fluorescence
acids for N species leads to the decrease of the luminescent properties of pro-CDs dispersed in epoxy resin are similar to
center. Various N species have different responses to acid, those in solution except for 23 nm blue shift of red emission
which results in the decrease of fluorescence intensity in and 17 nm blue shift of blue emission which are induced by
varying degrees. The red emission state is first destroyed polarity changes.25 pro-CDs in epoxy resin also emit white light
because amino groups in the molecular state are liable to react under 365 nm excitation, which indicates that pro-CDs in epoxy
with the acid. Pyridinic N is more basic than pyrrolic N since resin can be a good single light converter for white light-
that lone-pair of electrons of the pyridinic nitrogen atom does emitting diodes. Therefore, we employed pro-CDs as a single
not participate in the conjugated system of the pyridine ring. light converter for white LEDs by dispersing them into epoxy
Therefore, the green emission is completely destroyed before resin on an UV LED chip with 365 nm emission. Fig. 7a displays
the blue emission at low pH values. the emission spectra of the fabricated white LED, and blue
A possible band structure was proposed to explain the shifts of emission spectra occur due to the polarity changes of
photoluminescence process of the CDs with multiple emission epoxy resin for pro-CDs.45 The white LED has CIE coordinates
states, as shown in Fig. 6. It can be seen clearly that there are N of (0.31, 0.32) which are very close to balanced white-light
related surface emission states for CDs, which correspond to emission (0.33, 0.33), and the CRI is 85 which is also close to
different electron transition processes. Electrons are excited white light (Fig. 7b). The corresponding color temperature (CCT)

This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2018 J. Mater. Chem. C, 2018, 6, 12631--12637 | 12635
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states can serve as a single light converter for fabricating white


LED devices. The pro-CDs based white LED device has white
CIE coordinates of (0.31, 0.32) and a high CRI of 85 with
8.8 lm W 1, and it also exhibits excellent optical stability at
long working time intervals.

Conflicts of interest
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We declare that there are no conflicts of interest.


Fig. 7 Characterization of a white LED fabricated with the pro-CDs.
(a) Emission spectrum of the white LED (inset is a stability test of the white
LED), and (b) CIE color coordinates of the white LED (inset shows the
Acknowledgements
photograph of the white LED in the on-state).
This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (No. 51771068, 21603052, 51671079,
of the white LED is 5837 K, which is superior to commercial 51771067, 51571123, 51671108), the Natural Science Founda-
white LEDs for daily lighting. Compared with other CDs-based tion of Hebei Province (No. E2018202082), Financial Support
white LEDs, the pro-CDs-based white LED is prepared with only for Scientific and Technological Activities of Returnees from
one kind of CDs as a converter. The luminous efficiency of the Abroad (CL201606), and the Innovation Fund for Excellent
white LED is 8.8 lm W 1. In addition, the CIE chromaticity Youth of Hebei University of Technology (No. 2015005).
coordinates of (0.31, 0.32) are superior to those (0.27, 0.32) of
LED devices reaching the white region.44 A comparison of details
Notes and references
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