Synthesis of blue light-emitting graphene quantum dots and their application in flexible nonvolatile memory

• Graphene quantum dots (GQDs) were synthesized from double walled carbon nanotubes.
• The GQDs have uniform size distribution.
• The fluorescent lifetime of GQDs is wavelength-dependent.
• GQD–PMMA nanocomposite exhibits nonvolatile rewritable memory effect.
• Flexible memory was realized based on the GQD-based nanocomposite.

We presented a facile method to prepare graphene quantum dots (GQDs) from double-walled carbon nanotube with blue light emission in a chlorobenzene solution, which enabled the preparation of GQD–polymer hybrid nanocomposite. The wavelength-dependent fluorescent lifetime of the GQDs was investigated by using time-resolved photoluminescence technique. Significantly, nonvolatile rewritable memory effect was observed for the GQD-based nanocomposite, suggesting the promising applications of GQDs in data storage. Moreover, due to the easy solution process, we demonstrated the design and realization of flexible GQD-based memory device. This work may expand the application of GQDs to the portable electronic devices.

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