Nobel chemistry prize for ‘quantum dots’
For making colourful ‘quantum dots’, three scientists will receive this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry. Their research has been applied in QLED displays, among other things.
The distinguished research is at the intersection of chemistry and physics. The researchers discovered that very small crystals change colour when they are made slightly larger or smaller.
In chemistry, you normally learn that the properties of a substance, such as its colour and melting point, are fixed. Through chemical reactions, you can make new substances, with different properties.
But Russian Alexei Ekimov, American Louis Brus and Frenchman Moungi Bawendi changed the colour in a different way: by making slightly larger or smaller ‘nanoparticles’ of a substance. Based on quantum mechanics, this effect had already been predicted.
Their work is used in displays and LED light, among other things. More applications are coming, the committee expects, for example for ‘medical imaging’ that allows doctors to better see inside patients’ bodies. (HOP, BB)
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