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

许多纳米材料具有独特的光学和电子特性，在生物医学成像和诊断、能量转换和存储、光电器件、计算和数据存储等应用中具有前景。这种材料的合成将受益于更大的可持续性，例如，通过使用回收废旧消费品获得的试剂。不列颠哥伦比亚省的聚合物研究技术有限公司（PRT）开发了一种专有工艺，可将垃圾填埋场的聚氨酯泡沫转化为多元醇，供进一步制造使用。我们建议研究利用这些多元醇作为反应介质合成一类称为“量子点”的半导体纳米粒子的潜力。迄今为止，多元醇已被广泛用于合成各种金属纳米颗粒；然而，对多元醇合成半导体量子点的研究非常有限。量子点表现出强光

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