Technology and Intellectual Property
Nanoco’s core intellectual property (IP) is our patented technique for producing consistently high quality quantum dots, cost effectively, on an industrial scale.
The manufacturing process dispenses with the high temperature nucleation and growth which prevent other manufacturers from producing quantum dots in commercially viable volumes. In addition, the process provides finer control over the size and resulting emission wavelength of any given batch of quantum dots.
Nanoco Technologies’ partners rely on our proven ability to deliver timely, economical, high grade, bulk product shipments, enabling them to take next-generation commercial applications to market.
Nanoco Technologies protects its wholly-owned IP in all relevant territories, while pursuing new patents which result from our ongoing R&D activity.
About our Technology
Conventional, small-scale quantum dot manufacturing relies on a process called “high temperature dual injection”, wherein organometallic group alkyls are injected into a hot reaction solution, leading to supersaturation and the formulation of nuclei, followed by slower particle growth. While in general producing high quality quantum dots, this process involves harsh reaction conditions and hazardous, toxic starting materials. Moreover, attempts to scale up this process lead to reduced temperature control, causing greater and greater inconsistency in the resulting quality of quantum dots.
A reproducible route to larger quantities of consistent, high quality quantum dots has been established by Nanoco Technologies. This involves producing nanoparticles from chemical precursors in the presence of a molecular cluster compound under conditions whereby the integrity of the molecular cluster is maintained and acts as a prefabricated seed template. Individual molecules of a cluster compound act as a seed or nucleation point upon which nanoparticle growth can be initiated. In this way, a high temperature nucleation step is not necessary to initiate nanoparticle growth because suitable nucleation sites are already provided in the system by the molecular clusters. A significant advantage of this method is that it is highly scaleable.
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Molecular Seeding Method