Gel Systems Doped with Chiral Carbon Dots for Optical Combination

Abstract

Chiral carbon dots have been of unique interest recently for their fascinating structural features and potential better biocompatibility. However, to effectively incorporate them into composite functional materials as well as to further extend their material application remains a challenge. In this work, we reported that well-selected chiral carbon dots can be prepared and doped into a matchable chiral gel system to achieve an optical combination. Three chiral precursors (d-glutamic acid, l-glutamic acid, and l-methionine) were used as raw materials to directly prepare chiral carbon dots (d-Glu-CDs, l-Glu-CDs, and l-Met-CDs) by high-temperature pyrolysis. Their chiroptical signals can be regulated by concentration-dependent dispersion. Upon this foundation, we prepared a composite gel by blending the chiral carbon dots l-Glu-CDs with the chiral gelator N,N′-bis(octadecyl)-d-aminoglutamic diamide. Not only does the superposition of their chiroptical signals observed on the fibrous structures remain intact, but an optical combination is exhibited. The development of such chiral-carbon-dot-based composite functional materials may provide vision for the further advancement of pertinent material or biological usage.