Abstract
Herein, a novel recipe to prepare highly luminescent and multicolored carbon QDs with narrow bandwidth emission (???25 nm) and a quantum yield of 81%. The multicolored carbon QDs were prepared via the thermal dehydration of a mixture composed of ascorbic acid and 1,3,5-trihydroxybenzene at various time intervals. The structural phase and optical characterizations divulge that the crystalline perfection and molecular purity of the carbon QDs are the essential factors for the high color purity. The developed synthetic recipe gives rise to the decrease of electron-phonon coupling and improving the free-excitonic emission. The proposed synthetic recipe will open a new avenue for developing next-generation high-performance carbon QDs based light-emitting diodes.