SBIR Phase II: New Low Cost and Large Scale Manufacturing of Semiconductor Nanocrystals

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是消除目前阻碍半导体纳米晶体在全球不同细分市场中商业化的关键制造障碍。这些材料独特的尺寸和形状相关属性使其成为发光应用(包括照明和显示器)和光利用应用(太阳能电池板)的理想选择。如果成功，纳米晶体将被大量、廉价和统一地生产，从而为现有市场和新兴应用带来颠覆性的进步。随着可获得性和可负担性的提高，纳米晶体可以更容易地用于更节能的照明和显示器，改善显示器(笔记本电脑、平板电脑、相机和移动设备)的颜色质量，提高太阳能电池板的效率，并更广泛地渗透到医学研究、诊断和治疗的先进应用中。新兴的应用包括将半导体纳米晶体用于生物燃料电池、激光、光纤、电子、安全和监视、航空和地热示踪剂。该项目延续了第一阶段开始的工作，即开发一种低成本的制造方法，以生产商业化迫切需要的大规模和持续高质量的半导体纳米晶体量子点。拟议的研究活动通过一种创新的专有低温湿法化学合成路线直接满足这一需求。与传统的高温合成路线相比，这种方法可以更精确地控制产品的大小和形状--这些性能是成功将这些产品整合到最终用户应用中所必需的。此外，它还绕过了传统高温合成路线的规模限制。在第一阶段，我们已经成功地在实验室规模上展示了高质量的CdSe纳米晶体量子点的放大，同时使用我们的方法降低了生产成本。这一第二阶段的资金重点是展示更大规模的高质量纳米晶体的生产，包括使用我们的低温方法生产不含重金属的量子点。它还将专注于第一阶段开发的CdSe量子点的合成后处理，以满足原始设备制造商？规格。将通过开发连续流动模型以及提高低温方法的净化效率来研究扩大到商业上可行的数量。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) phase II project is in removing key manufacturing barriers that are currently hindering commercialization of semiconductor nanocrystals in diverse market segments worldwide. The unique size- and shape-related properties of these materials make them ideal for light emission applications (including lighting and displays) and light harnessing applications (solar panels). If successful, nanocrystals will be produced in large quantities, inexpensively, and uniformly, resulting in a disruptive advance for existing markets and emerging applications. With greater availability and affordability, nanocrystals can be more easily utilized for more energy efficient lighting and displays, improve color quality in displays (laptops, tablets, cameras and mobile devices), increase efficiency of solar panels, and penetrate more widely into advancing applications in medical research, diagnostics and treatment. Emerging applications include the use of semiconductor nanocrystals for biofuel cells, lasers, fiber optics, electronics, security and surveillance, aviation and geothermal tracers. This project continues the work initiated in Phase I on development of a low cost manufacturing method for production of large-scale and consistently high-quality semiconductor nanocrystals quantum dots urgently needed for their commercialization. The proposed research activities directly address this need through an innovative proprietary low-temperature wet chemical synthesis route. Compared to the conventional high-temperature synthesis route, this method can more precisely control the size and shape of products - properties that are necessary for successful incorporation of these products into end-user applications. Additionally, it circumvents scaling limitations of conventional high-temperature synthesis routes. In Phase I, we have successfully demonstrated scale up of high quality CdSe nanocrystal quantum dots in a laboratory scale while lowering cost of production using our method. This Phase II funding focuses on demonstrating scaled-up production of larger quantities of high-quality nanocrystals, including heavy metal free quantum dots using our low-temperature method. It will also focus on post-synthesis processing of CdSe quantum dots developed in Phase I to meet Original Equipment Manufacturers? specifications. Scale up to commercially viable amounts will be studied by developing a continuous flow model as well as by improving purification efficiency of the low temperature method.