Shine on you crazy carbon! In this work, nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots (N-CQDs) are synthesized using a simple custom atmospheric pressure microplasma. The method is facile, rapid, and environmentally friendly and the N-CQDs can be produced in a few minutes with no need for high temperature, complicated chemical techniques, or surface ligands. The N-CQDs are formed using molecular precursors and can be produced in different solvent mixtures. Material characterization techniques show a high degree of nitrogen doping on the QD surface with the amount of nitrogen depending on initial reaction conditions. The N-CQDs show interesting quantum confined optical properties that depend on the amount of nitrogen incorporation. Importantly, the band energy structure of the N-CQDs is elucidated and they are incorporated into a photovoltaic device as the photoactive layer achieving an extraordinary open-circuit voltage of 1.8 V and a power conversion efficiency of 0.8% (champion device), amongst the highest reported to date for group IV and carbon based quantum dots.

中文翻译：

---

下一代太阳能电池的环保氮掺杂碳量子点

闪耀在您疯狂的碳上！在这项工作中，使用简单的定制大气压微等离子体合成了氮掺杂的碳量子点（N-CQD）。该方法简便，快速且对环境友好，无需高温，复杂的化学技术或表面配体，即可在几分钟内生产出N-CQD。N-CQD是使用分子前体形成的，可以在不同的溶剂混合物中生产。材料表征技术表明，在QD表面上氮的掺杂程度很高，这取决于初始反应条件。N-CQD显示出有趣的量子限制光学性质，该性质取决于氮的掺入量。重要的，