A green one-arrow-two-hawks strategy for nitrogen-doped carbon dots as fluorescent ink and oxygen reduction electrocatalysts

Abstract

A green strategy has been developed for synthesizing nitrogen-doped carbon dots (N-CDs) via hydrothermal treatment of willow leaves. The supernatant exhibits strong blue fluorescence under UV radiation and can be directly used as a fluorescent ink, while the solid product with pyrolysis possesses excellent electrocatalytic activity for a highly efficient oxygen reduction reaction with great stability and methanol/CO tolerance superior to a commercial Pt/C catalyst.