A new era of LED lighting – quantum dot technology

Quantum dot technology has had a broad commercial impact on the LED lighting technology industry, and improving its manufacturing steps and increasing profits is a focus of research. According to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers "Spectrum" magazine website, researchers from Oregon State University in the United States recently demonstrated a new quantum dot manufacturing technology that not only ensures the size and shape of the quantum dots are consistent, but also enables more precise color control, ushering in a new era of LED lighting.

In the study published in the Journal of Nanoparticle Research, the research team used a type of chemical reactor called a "continuous flow". Chemicals are continuously fed into the reactor and produce continuous LED lighting. This continuous flow device makes the process of manufacturing LED lighting cheaper, faster, and highly scalable. At the same time, they used microwaves to heat reagents and solved the problem of precise temperature control during chemical reactions. This microwave device works in much the same way as the microwave you use at home.

Researchers believe that this method will bring huge changes to the field of LED lighting. Because this method can create quantum dots of consistent size and shape, its flexibility allows manufacturers to produce quantum dots with a variety of uses. Smaller quantum dots can emit green light, and larger quantum dots can emit orange to red light.

"We may eventually create low-cost, energy-efficient LED lighting that can achieve the effect of white light that people want," said Greg Herman, associate professor of chemical engineering at the university. The research team believes that their precise manufacturing method can lead to better color control compared with other quantum dot manufacturing technologies.

“At the same time, this technology uses non-toxic materials and greatly reduces the waste of materials, which will reduce production costs and protect the environment.” Herman explained that compared with cadmium commonly used in LED lighting systems, the copper indium diselenide compound material used in quantum dots is more environmentally friendly.

Researchers say that quantum dots made by this method can provide another "cheap" option for a variety of fields such as optics, electronics and biomedicine.