Abstract
Colloidal carbon dots (CDs) have garnered much attention as metal‐free photoluminescent nanomaterials, yet creation of solid‐state fluorescent (SSF) materials emitting in the deep red (DR) to near‐infrared (NIR) range poses a significant challenge with practical implications. To address this challenge and to engineer photonic functionalities, a micro‐resonator architecture is developed using carbonized polymer microspheres (CPMs), evolved from conventional colloidal nanodots. Gram‐scale production of CPMs utilizes controlled microscopic phase separation facilitated by natural peptide cross‐linking during hydrothermal processing. The resulting microstructure effectively suppresses aggregation‐induced quenching (AIQ), enabling strong solid‐state light emission. Both experimental and theoretical analysis support a role for extended π‐conjugated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) trapped within
