I-Corps: Large Scale Production of Semiconductor Quantum Dots for Biomedical Imaging in the Near-Infrared

胶体半导体纳米晶体或量子点（NCs）是小的，高荧光的无机粒子，潜在地结合了晶体半导体和小有机分子的积极品质。最近，研究人员发现了低温制备II-VI和IV-VI硫系碳纳米管（如CdSe或PbSe碳纳米管）的基本化学反应机制。该项目的总体目标将包括将NC合成反应扩大1000倍，同时保持高质量的纳米颗粒。一般的方法是使用具有可调反应性的NC化学前体分子来控制NC的生长速率。研究人员将有能力培育出大量较小的纳米细胞，然后用这些纳米粒子培育出比传统方法规模大得多的更大尺寸的纳米细胞。将特别侧重于近红外nc，这种nc没有商业上的可用性，并且在有机染料发射较差的生物医学相关波长发出荧光。在传统的分子（如生物医学成像）或大块无机半导体（如太阳能电池、显示器、发光器件和新型激光器）领域，NCs可以潜在地推动新技术的发展。例如，与传统上用于生物成像的有机染料相比，NCs具有许多优点，包括更亮的荧光，更强的光稳定性，以及同时在多个波长上成像的能力。到项目结束时，研究人员计划开发出用于可见光和红外光子应用的大规模核壳NCs合成方法，为基于该技术的初创公司提供大量潜在机会。

Colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals or quantum dots (NCs) are small, highly fluorescent inorganic particles that potentially combine the positive qualities of crystalline semiconductors and small organic molecules. Recently, researchers have discovered a fundamental chemical reaction mechanism underlying low temperature preparations of II-VI and IV-VI chalcogenide NCs, such as CdSe or PbSe NCs. The overall goal of the project will involve scaling up the NC synthesis reaction 1000-fold, while maintaining high quality nanoparticles as measured by standard metrics. The general approach is to use NC chemical precursor molecules with tunable reactivity to control rates of NC growth. Researchers will have the ability to nucleate huge amounts of smaller NCs and then use these nanoparticles to seed the growth of larger sized NCs on a much bigger scale than traditionally used. There will be particular focus on near-infrared NCs, which are not available commercially, and which fluoresce at bio-medically relevant wavelengths where organic dyes emit poorly. NCs can potentially drive novel technology in areas that are traditionally the exclusive domain of either molecules (such as biomedical imaging) or bulk inorganic semiconductors (such as solar cells, displays, light emitting devices, and novel lasers). For example, NCs have many advantages over organic dyes traditionally used for biological imaging including much brighter fluorescence, significantly more photostability, and the ability to image at several wavelengths simultaneously. By the end of this project researchers plan to have developed the methodology to synthesize on the large scale core-shell NCs, for visible and infrared photonic applications, providing a very large set of potential opportunities for a startup company based on this technology.