The thermal stability of Bi-doped CQDs, liposomes, and lipo/Bi-doped CQDs was studied by thermogravimetric (TGA) analysis. As shown in
Fig. 2A, the thermal stability of liposomes was higher than that of Bi-doped CQDs and lipo/Bi-doped CQDs. At 440 ℃, the weight loss rates of Bi-doped CQDs and lipo/Bi-doped CQDs were 69.7% and 64.8%, respectively. The weighting ratio of the two materials reached 72% and 69.2% when the temperature reached 800 ℃. For the liposomes, the mass rate at 440 ℃ was 44.8%, and then the weight loss rate at 800 ℃ was 46.3%, indicating that the content of Bi-doped CQDs encapsulated in the liposomes was 89.1 wt%, and the content of Bi elements was 0.71% [
11]. We also further studied the valence bonding forms of functional groups on the surfaces of the three materials by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and X-ray photoelectron (XPS) spectroscopy. As shown in
Fig. 2B, liposomes and lipo/Bi-doped CQDs exhibit C-H stretching vibration in the range of 2900–2950 cm
−1, and C=O stretching vibration in the region of 1700–1800 cm
−1 [
22]. However, the absorption bands become less pronounced for the Bi-doped CQDs at the above two locations. Moreover, the characteristic O-H/N-H stretching vibrations of liposomes and lipo/Bi-doped CQDs were observed in the range of 3300–3400 cm
−1 compared to Bi-doped CQDs. The absorption peaks of Bi-doped CQDs and lipo/Bi-doped CQDs in the field of 620–630 cm
−1 can be attributed to -Bi-O tensile vibration [
23,
24], indicating the successful formation of composite nanomaterials between Bi-doped CQDs and liposomes. The XPS full spectra of
Fig. 2C and Fig. S8 (Supporting information) show that the three materials are mainly composed of C, N, and O, and the percentages of different elements are listed in Table S2 (Supporting information). The high-resolution C 1s spectra (
Figs. 2D and
I, Fig. S9A in Supporting information) can be divided into parts of 284.3, 284.6, 285.0, 286.0, and 288.9 eV, belonging to the C=C, C-C, C-N, C-O, and C=O bonds respectively [
20,
25]. The high-resolution N 1s spectra have two distinct peaks at 401.9 and 402.2 eV, which are attributed to the pyrrole N and N-H bonds (
Figs. 2E and
J, Fig. S9B in Supporting information). The high-resolution O 1s spectra of lipo/Bi-doped CQDs (
Fig. 2F) show three peaks at 530.5, 532.2, and 533.3 eV, corresponding to Bi-O, P-O, and C=O bonds, respectively, compared to the Bi-doped CQDs (
Fig. 2K) and liposomes (Fig. S9C in Supporting information) [
25,
26]. In addition, the high-resolution Bi 4f spectra of Bi-doped CQDs (
Fig. 2L) and lipo/Bi-doped CQDs (
Fig. 2G) can be divided into 158.84 and 164.44 eV, which are associated with Bi 4f
7/2 and Bi 4f
5/2 structures, respectively [
23,
24,
26]. The high-resolution P 2p of lipo/Bi-doped CQDs and liposomes in
Fig. 2H and Fig. S9D (Supporting information) show two distinct peaks at 132.9 and 133.54 eV, mainly in the form of P-C and P-C-P bonds [
26]. Overall, the functional groups observed in the XPS spectra are consistent with the FT-IR spectra, indicating that the lipo/Bi-doped CQDs are composed of Bi-doped CQDs and liposomes, and the nitrogen and oxygen functional groups contained on the surface confer excellent water solubility of the material.