Observations on size confinement effect in B-C-N nanoparticles embedded in mesoporous silica channels

Fluorescent B-C-N/silica nanoparticles were synthesized by solution impregnation method. Effect of B-C-N particle size on the optical properties was investigated by varying the silica pore sizes. Formation of B-C-N nanoparticles within the mesoporous matrix is confirmed by x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Furthermore, a remarkable blue-shift in emission peak centres with decreasing pore size in conjugation with band gap modification, ascribed to the size confinement effect. A detailed analysis of experimental results by theoretically defined confinement models demonstrates that the B-C-N nanoparticles in the size range of 3–13 nm falls within the confinement regime. This work demonstrated the experimental evidence of the size confinement effect in smaller size B-C-N nanoparticles.