Winter can get pretty dark, especially in northern latitudes, and many cultures have winter holidays that feature and celebrate lights. For our last episode of 2019 we decided to talk about the bright and colorful chemistry of carbon dots! In this mini episode we interview Dr. Christy Haynes, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota and Associate Director of the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology.

Left: Dr. Christy Haynes. Right: Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image of malic acid carbon dots with an inset photo of the carbon dots in aqueous solution and illuminated by 365 nm UV (carbon dot image by Bo Zhi)

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ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Related links:

• Christy Haynes: website, Twitter
• Sustainable Nano blog post: Have you ever seen colorful "carbon"?
• Pham, S. et al. Carbon Dots: A Modular Activity To Teach Fluorescence and Nanotechnology at Multiple Levels. Journal of Chemical Education, 2017. 94(8) 1143-1149. doi: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b00995
• The Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology

Interviewee: Christy Haynes

Producer/Host: Miriam Krause

Music: PC III and Dexter Britain

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology, grant number CHE-1503408. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed on this podcast are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the participating institutions.