Chemical Engineering April 2019 - 15

Quantum Materials
lored for a broader range of end uses.
Kowlgi lists anti-counterfeit inks (Figure
3) and tags, digital camera sensors
and photovoltaics as important
emerging application areas for QDs in
the coming years.
QDs for sustainability
QDs also hold promise in improving
environmental sustainability. UbiQD,
Inc. (Los Alamos, N.M.; www.ubiqd.
com) has developed specialized QDs
for agricultural and solar energy applications.
According to Hunter McDaniel,
founder and CEO of UbiQD,
the company's QDs bring together a
unique semiconducting composition
and a novel luminescence mechanism
into a low-toxicity formula - based on
zinc or copper rather than commonly
used, more toxic materials, such as
cadmium (Cd) or lead (Pb) - to enable
QDs' use in applications that were not
previously accessible at a commercial
scale. " Our main focus is large-area
applications that involve the manipulation
of sunlight. Greenhouse agriculFIGURE
2. QMC's continuous process for QD manufacturing
enables a considerably faster conversion
from feedstock to functional materials
ture and commercial building windows
are our priorities. In both cases, we are
partially absorbing sunlight, changing
the color, and then re-routing that light
energy to either boost crop yield or
generate electricity. " explains McDaniel.
The UbiGro greenhouse-focused
product line is commercially available,
while the solar-window materials are
still in the development phase. UbiGro
is an active QD-based film used on
greenhouses (Figure 4) that red-shifts
the sun's spectrum. McDaniel says
that UbiGro has shown effectiveness
in improving yield and quality over a
variety of climate conditions with many
crops, including tomatoes, cucumbers,
leafy greens, hemp and more.
UbiQD utilizes a liquid-phase batch
3452 BioN 7x4.875 ad_Layout 1 12/12/18 10:16 AM Page 1
reaction to make about 1 kg of QDs
per 10 L of reactor each week. McDaniel
says that the key to manufacturing
the company's unique QDs
is in the chemical recipes and postFor
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APRIL 2019
15
processing steps, and that the process
requires lower costs and results
in higher-stability materials than other
QD manufacturing processes.
Although QDs are still mainly
thought of as display components,
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Chemical Engineering April 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering April 2019
