SBIR Phase I: Commercial Scale Production of a New Generation of Nanocrystal Emitters---Doped Quantum Dots

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project will establish automated commercial-scale production schemes for a new generation of quantum dot emitters, doped quantum dots (d-dots) emitters. Different from the current workhouse for intrinsic quantum dots, CdSe based nanocrystals, this new generation of nanocrystal emitters is based on zinc chalcogenide nanocrystals doped with transition metal ions, and thus no heavy metal ions will be involved. High quality d-dots with bright, tunable, and pure dopant emission have recently been invented by this SBIR team, which is substantially better than any d-dots reported in literature. Despite their low intrinsic toxicity, the performance of these newly invented d-dots exceeds that of q-dots in several important aspects, such as zero self-quenching, high thermal stability, high durability, and high suitability for a variety of surface treatments. These high performance d-dot emitters nicely comply with stringent environmental policies. For instance, in 2006 summer, European Union starts banning any products containing any amount of internationally added heavy metals, namely, cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), and lead (Pb). It is expected that these high performance and low intrinsical toxicity d-dots will provide a much needed platform for several important industrial sectors, i.e., solid state lighting, bio-medical diagnostics, drug development, LEDs, lasers, and sensors. Commercially, as a platform technology, successful production of high quality d-dots will offer grand opportunities for many applications in optoelectronic, medical, and sensing fields. For instance, d-dots are ideal emitters for solid state lighting, which yields energy-saving and safe lighting devices. High quality d-dots will also make LED based display technology more feasible. In addition to their outstanding performance, d-dots don't contain any infamous heavy metal ions.