Evaluation of recycled polyols as media for the synthesis of quantum dot nanoparticles

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Many nanomaterials have unique optical and electronic properties and hold promise for applications such as biomedical imaging and diagnostics, energy conversion and storage, optoelectronic devices, computing and data storage. The synthesis of such materials would benefit from greater sustainability, for example, by using reagents obtained by recycling of waste consumer products. Polymer Research Technologies Ltd. (PRT) of British Columbia has developed a proprietary process for converting polyurethane foams from landfills into polyols for further manufacturing use. We propose to investigate the potential for the synthesis of a class of semiconductor nanoparticles called "quantum dots" using these polyols as a reaction medium. To date, polyols have been widely utilized for the synthesis of a variety of metal nanoparticles; however, investigation of the polyol synthesis of semiconductor quantum dots has been very limited. Quantum dots exhibit strong light