Nanoco
Encyclopedia
Nanoco is a nanotechnology
company located in Manchester
, United Kingdom
founded in 2001http://www.azonano.com/Suppliers.asp?SupplierID=1256. The company is a spinoff of research pursued at the University of Manchester
.
Nanoco Technologies is unique in the nanomaterials market as a company that manufactures large quantities of quantum dots, in particular cadmium free quantum dots.
), LED lighting, Backlighting, flexible low-cost solar cells and Biological Imaging.
Since May 2009 the company has been listed on AIM at the London Stock Exchangehttp://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/prices-and-news/stocks/summary/company-summary.html?fourWayKey=GB00B01JLR99GBGBXAMSM.
, mercury
, lead
and hexavalent chromium
. Maximum concentrations are 0.1% or 1000 ppm for cadmium and for lead 0.01% or 100 ppm by weight of homogeneous material. There are similar regulations in place or soon to be implemented worldwide including China, Korea, Japan, Mexico and the US.
Cadmium and other restricted heavy metals used in conventional quantum dots is of a major concern in commercial applications. For QDs to be commercially viable in many applications they MUST NOT CONTAIN cadmium or other restricted elements. Nanoco has developed a range of restricted metal free quantum dots. These materials show bright emission in the visible and near infra-red region of the spectrumhttp://www.kisco-net.jp/nanoco/en/nanoco.html.
market is hugely important, with the promise of increased lamp lifetimes and efficiencies paving the way for a revolution in the lighting industry. Color rendering and efficiency are the two most important criteria for traditional light sources for general lighting. The ability of a light source to illuminate an object’s true color is denoted by its color rendering index. For example, sodium lamp street lighting has poor color rendering capability as it’s difficult to distinguish a red car from a yellow car.
Current white light LED technology utilizes a cerium doped YAG:Ce (yttrium aluminium garnet) down-conversion phosphor pumped by a blue (450 nm) LED chip. The combination of blue light from the LED and a broad yellow emission from the YAG phosphor results in white light. Unfortunately, this white light often appears somewhat blue and is often described as “cold” or “cool” white. Quantum dots can be used as LED down-conversion phosphors because they exhibit a broad excitation spectrum and high quantum efficiencies. Furthermore, the wavelength of the emission can be tuned completely across the visible region simply by varying the size of the dot or the type of semiconductor material. As such, they have the potential to be used to generate virtually any color and, more importantly, warm whites strongly desired by the lighting industry.
Additionally, by using a combination of one to three different types of dots with emission wavelengths corresponding to green, yellow, and red it is possible to achieve white lights of different color rendering indexes. Because of these attractive features, QD-LEDs are beginning to receive attention from both industrial and academic researchers. In addition to white lighting for general illumination, there are other opportunities for QD-LEDs. For example, green LEDs are not particularly efficient, thus green-emitting QDs on top of an efficient blue LED chip may be a solution. Similarly, amber LEDs suffer from temperature dependencies and thus a QD solution may be applicable. Furthermore, because of the widely tunable QD emission, it’s possible to have near UV-pumped QD-LEDs with combinations of QDs which emit virtually any color on the chromaticity diagram. This could have important applications in signage by, for example, replacing neon bulbs.
technology involves costly evaporation techniques, which is hindering their mass market adoption. CIGS and CIS (copper indium gallium diselenide, copper indium diselenide) nanocrystals or quantum dots allow the use of conventional, low cost printing techniques to fabricate thin film solar cells.
Using the quantum dot method to make CIGS and CIS nanoparticles for photovoltaic applications provide materials which possess the desired elemental ratios or stoichiometry, which can be adjusted to meet specific needs. The material is highly crystalline, mono-dispersed (5.0 nm) particles, which absorb light up to 800nm.
In this way, the material can be printed onto a substrate using a wide range of printing techniques, even in roll-to-roll processes. Once printed, the CIGS/CIS materials are heated to remove the organic capping agent, which destroys the quantum confinement associated with the QDs and provides for a p-type semiconductor film possessing the desired crystalline structure.
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...
company located in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
founded in 2001http://www.azonano.com/Suppliers.asp?SupplierID=1256. The company is a spinoff of research pursued at the University of Manchester
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...
.
Nanoco Technologies is unique in the nanomaterials market as a company that manufactures large quantities of quantum dots, in particular cadmium free quantum dots.
Market Diffusion
Growing industrial adoption of quantum dot technology by R&D and blue-chip organisations has led to a greater demand for the bulk manufacture of the product. The bulk manufacture of quantum dots provides companies with the platform to develop a wide variety of next-generation products, particularly in application areas such as Displays (Quantum dot displayQuantum dot display
A quantum dot display is a type of display technology used in flat panel displays as an electronic visual display. Quantum dots or semiconductor nanocrystals are a form of light emitting technology and consist of nano-scale crystals that can provide an alternative for applications such as display...
), LED lighting, Backlighting, flexible low-cost solar cells and Biological Imaging.
Since May 2009 the company has been listed on AIM at the London Stock Exchangehttp://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/prices-and-news/stocks/summary/company-summary.html?fourWayKey=GB00B01JLR99GBGBXAMSM.
Cadmium Free Quantum Dots
There is a move towards legislation and restriction and in some cases ban heavy metals in products such as IT & telecommunication equipment, Lighting equipment , Electrical & electronic tools, Toys, leisure & sports equipment. In Europe the restricted metals include cadmiumCadmium
Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, bluish-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Similar to zinc, it prefers oxidation state +2 in most of its compounds and similar to mercury it shows a low...
, mercury
Mercury (element)
Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum...
, lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
and hexavalent chromium
Hexavalent chromium
Hexavalent chromium refers to chemical compounds that contain the element chromium in the +6 oxidation state. Virtually all chromium ore is processed via hexavalent chromium, specifically the salt sodium dichromate. Approximately of hexavalent chromium were produced in 1985...
. Maximum concentrations are 0.1% or 1000 ppm for cadmium and for lead 0.01% or 100 ppm by weight of homogeneous material. There are similar regulations in place or soon to be implemented worldwide including China, Korea, Japan, Mexico and the US.
Cadmium and other restricted heavy metals used in conventional quantum dots is of a major concern in commercial applications. For QDs to be commercially viable in many applications they MUST NOT CONTAIN cadmium or other restricted elements. Nanoco has developed a range of restricted metal free quantum dots. These materials show bright emission in the visible and near infra-red region of the spectrumhttp://www.kisco-net.jp/nanoco/en/nanoco.html.
QD-LEDs
The white light LEDLEd
LEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....
market is hugely important, with the promise of increased lamp lifetimes and efficiencies paving the way for a revolution in the lighting industry. Color rendering and efficiency are the two most important criteria for traditional light sources for general lighting. The ability of a light source to illuminate an object’s true color is denoted by its color rendering index. For example, sodium lamp street lighting has poor color rendering capability as it’s difficult to distinguish a red car from a yellow car.
Current white light LED technology utilizes a cerium doped YAG:Ce (yttrium aluminium garnet) down-conversion phosphor pumped by a blue (450 nm) LED chip. The combination of blue light from the LED and a broad yellow emission from the YAG phosphor results in white light. Unfortunately, this white light often appears somewhat blue and is often described as “cold” or “cool” white. Quantum dots can be used as LED down-conversion phosphors because they exhibit a broad excitation spectrum and high quantum efficiencies. Furthermore, the wavelength of the emission can be tuned completely across the visible region simply by varying the size of the dot or the type of semiconductor material. As such, they have the potential to be used to generate virtually any color and, more importantly, warm whites strongly desired by the lighting industry.
Additionally, by using a combination of one to three different types of dots with emission wavelengths corresponding to green, yellow, and red it is possible to achieve white lights of different color rendering indexes. Because of these attractive features, QD-LEDs are beginning to receive attention from both industrial and academic researchers. In addition to white lighting for general illumination, there are other opportunities for QD-LEDs. For example, green LEDs are not particularly efficient, thus green-emitting QDs on top of an efficient blue LED chip may be a solution. Similarly, amber LEDs suffer from temperature dependencies and thus a QD solution may be applicable. Furthermore, because of the widely tunable QD emission, it’s possible to have near UV-pumped QD-LEDs with combinations of QDs which emit virtually any color on the chromaticity diagram. This could have important applications in signage by, for example, replacing neon bulbs.
CIGS/CIS nanoparticles
Fabrication of current thin film solar cellThin film solar cell
A thin-film solar cell , also called a thin-film photovoltaic cell , is a solar cell that is made by depositing one or more thin layers of photovoltaic material on a substrate...
technology involves costly evaporation techniques, which is hindering their mass market adoption. CIGS and CIS (copper indium gallium diselenide, copper indium diselenide) nanocrystals or quantum dots allow the use of conventional, low cost printing techniques to fabricate thin film solar cells.
Using the quantum dot method to make CIGS and CIS nanoparticles for photovoltaic applications provide materials which possess the desired elemental ratios or stoichiometry, which can be adjusted to meet specific needs. The material is highly crystalline, mono-dispersed (5.0 nm) particles, which absorb light up to 800nm.
In this way, the material can be printed onto a substrate using a wide range of printing techniques, even in roll-to-roll processes. Once printed, the CIGS/CIS materials are heated to remove the organic capping agent, which destroys the quantum confinement associated with the QDs and provides for a p-type semiconductor film possessing the desired crystalline structure.