A research team led by Professor Jeon Seokwoo (Department of Materials Science and Engineering) discovered a new method to improve the solid emission efficiency of graphene quantum dots, two-dimensional material light emitting material. The study, titled “Aggregation-induced Emission of Matrix-free Graphene Quantum Dots via Selective Edge Functionalization of Rotor Molecules” was published online on February 18, 2023, in a prestigious international journal called *Science Advances.*

Along with the growing interest in light-emitting materials, the international search for light-emitting materials that are harmless to the human body and high in luminance has also been increasing. Professor Jeon told Korea University (KU) that "[our team] reported that graphene quantum dots with various luminous behaviors such as phosphor, TADF, and fluorescence can be synthesized by controlling the distance between graphene quantum dots through the adjustment of the end functional group of graphene quantum dots for the first time.”

The team of researchers has made a significant step in the efforts to eliminate harmful materials from ubiquitous technologies. “These technologies are expected to be key to next-generation optoelectronic devices, such as host-free LED devices using blue phosphor, TADF and fluorescent light-emitting mechanisms, solar cells using graphene quantum dots as triplet photosensitizers, and phosphor-based security materials, without the use of harmful heavy metal elements,” commented Professor Jeon.