Redox-initiated polymerization of N-vinylcarbazole based on carbon dots for modification and beyond

Herein, carbon dots (CDs) and N,N-dimethylaniline (DMA) were designed as a redox couple for redox-initiated polymerization of N-vinylcarbazole (NVC) under mild conditions. Several ratios of CDs to DMA and various temperatures were adopted to prove the feasibilities of the redox-initiated polymerization. Meanwhile, the CDs as fillers were encapsulated, crosslinked and passivated by the resulting poly (N-vinylcarbazole) (PVK) to form red emissive PVK-CDs composites with a fluorescence quantum yield up to 28.75%, which is significantly higher than that of pristine CDs. In particular, the loading of CDs also enhanced the electron-transfer properties and thermostability of PVK. Hence, this work not only applied CDs to redox-initiated polymerization of NVC so as to prepare CDs modified PVK, but also illustrated the electron-transfer properties of CDs in polymerization and PVK modification. Expectedly, by taking advantages of electron-transfer properties of CDs, it is expectable for redox-initiated polymerization to synthesize more CDs modified polymers for promising applications.