The development of alternative, more efficient commercially viable routes to heavy metal-free quantum dot production to exploit developing markets in the electronics industry.

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Nanoco is the sole UK manufacturer and supplier of state of the art quantum dots (QDs), tiny semiconductor crystals only a few nanometers in size. QDs exhibit unusual and interesting energy efficient properties that are exciting commercially in many fast growing markets including electroluminescent displays, solid state lighting, solar cells, biotechnology and biomedicine. The QDs’ many advantages over conventional devices include higher performance, increased efficiency and significantly lower environmental impact. New markets to exploit their unique properties are close to commercial exploitation.The majority of QDs currently in commercial applications contain cadmium (Cd), a toxicheavy metal which is damaging to the environment. New legislation is preventing/minimising the use of Cd worldwide and Japanese companies will not exploit any Cd-based technology. Of necessity biomedical applications require heavy metal free dots. Nanoco has developed proprietary synthetic routes to produce heavy metal free dots of equivalent performance and stability to Cd-based systems in large quantities. However, some of the precursors currently used are both expensive and inefficient. Nanoco must develop the existing process through the introduction of new and efficient precursors to allow QDs to be commercially viable on industrial scale-up and to compete effectively against existing and emerging technologies.Cost, energy usage and environmental improvements to the process will make theirwidespread use possible in current and new electronic and optoelectronic applications.The synthesis of Cd-free QDs from alternative precursor routes requires detailed investigation and development. In particular new reactor designs will be needed to accommodate the different properties of these new precursors compared to their existing counterparts.The end result of this project would be the late stage prototype of an industrial scalableprocess based on the improved starting materials.