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

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)项目将为新一代量子点发射体、掺杂量子点(d-dots)发射体建立自动化的商业规模生产计划。与目前的本征量子点工作场所不同，这种新一代纳米晶体发射体是基于掺杂过渡金属离子的硫化物锌纳米晶体，因此不涉及重金属离子。这个SBIR团队最近发明了具有明亮、可调和纯掺杂发射的高质量d-点，这比文献中报道的任何d-点都要好得多。尽管这些新发明的d-点的本征毒性很低，但其性能在几个重要方面都超过了q-点，如零自猝灭、高热稳定性、高耐久性以及对各种表面处理的高度适应性。这些高性能的d点发射器很好地遵守了严格的环境政策。例如，2006年夏天，欧盟开始禁止任何含有任何数量的国际添加重金属的产品，即镉(Cd)、汞(Hg)和铅(Pb)。预计这些高性能和低本征毒性的d点将为固态照明、生物医学诊断、药物开发、LED、激光和传感器等重要工业部门提供一个亟需的平台。从商业角度来看，作为一种平台技术，高质量d点的成功生产将为光电子、医疗和传感领域的许多应用提供巨大的机会。例如，d点是固态照明的理想发射器，它产生了节能和安全的照明设备。高质量的d点也将使基于LED的显示技术更加可行。除了它们出色的性能外，d-点不含任何臭名昭著的重金属离子。

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.