Quantum Dot Technology May Help Light the Future

Quantum Dots – New Generation LED Lighting

Developments at the Oregon State University, in the manufacturing technology for quantum dots could soon lead to new generation of LED lighting.Quantum dots are nanoparticles which could be utilised in emitting light and by accurately controlling the size of the particle and the colour of the light.

They have been utilised for some time and can be expensive, lacking optimal colour control. The manufacturing technique that have been developed at OSU would be able to increase to large volumes for low-cost commercial applications providing new ways of offering the accuracy essential for better colour control.

This could create a more user friendly white light while utilising less toxic material together with low cost manufacturing procedures which tend to take advantage of simple microwave heating. It would help the country in reducing its lighting bill in half.

Compared to the cost of incandescent as well as fluorescent lighting and the cost, performance and environmental improvements could eventually create solid state lighting systems which consumers prefer and help the nation in reducing its lighting bill by half, according to researchers.

Same technology could also be merged in improved lighting display, computer screens, televisions, smart phones and the other systems.

Applied to Various Products & Technologies

Significant to the advances that had been published in the Journal of Nanoparticle Research, is use of both a continuous flow chemical reactor and microwave heating technology that is theoretically identical to the ovens which are part of every modern kitchen.

The constant flow system tends to be fast, cheap, energy efficient and would cut manufacturing costs. Microwave heating technology could report a problem that had held back wider use of these systems, so far, which is the accurate control of heat needed during the procedure.

Microwave approach would translate into development of nanoparticles that are exactly the right size, shape and composition. According to an associate professor and chemical engineering in the OSU College of Engineering, Greg Herman, states that `there are various products and technologies that quantum dots can be applied to but for mass consumer use, possibly the most important is improved LED lighting.

Eventually they would be able to manage in producing low cost, energy efficient LED lighting with the soft quality of white light which people would want and at the same time the technology would use nontoxic materials and reduce the waste of materials which are used and translates to lower cost and environmental protection.

Research Supported by Oregon BEST/National Science Foundation

According to Herman, some of the top existing LED lighting being produced presently at industrial levels tend to use cadmium which is highly toxic and the system now being tested and developed at the OSU depends on copper indium diselenide which is a much more benign material with high energy conversion efficiency.

Some earlier systems creating these nanoparticles for use in optics, electronics and biomedicine tend to be slow, expensive and at times toxic as well as often a waste. There is also a possibility of other applications of these systems. Cell phones and portable electronic devices could use less power and could last longer on a single charge.

`Tuggants or compounds with certain infrared or visible light emissions could be utilised for accurate and prompt identification which include control of counterfeit bills or products. OSU has been working with private sector in the development of this technology. The research is being supported by Oregon BEST and the National Science Foundation Centre for Sustainable Materials Chemistry.