Quantum Materials Corp. (fka QTMM)

[trevorbc]

Quantum Materials Corp To Drive QD Production

http://www.photonicconference.com/quantum-dots/news/quantum-material-corp-is-drive-qd-production

Recently, Quantum Materials Corp, the leading quantum dot manufacture in North America, announced the company has entered in a business venture with Guanghui Technology Group, a Chinese technology company. Guanghui Technology Group will invest $20 million to build out quantum dot production facilities.

Click here to read the full press release

This is a very timely announcement as the the Quantum Dots Forum 2016 features Dr. Nathan Stott, Director of Materials at Quantum Material Corporation. Dr. Stott's presentation will highlight emerging market demands. Smithers Apex recently sat down with Dr. Stott to gain insights on his new position and his presentation.

SMITHERS APEX: How did you become first involved with Quantum Dots?

Dr. Nathan Stott: I first became involved in the QD field as a graduate student at MIT while performing research in the laboratory of Professor Moungi G. Bawendi to develop novel QD synthetic processes. This work resulted in significant intellectual property that has been under license to multiple companies since before I graduated until the present time.

SMITHERS APEX: What is the greatest advancement you’ve seen in the industry thus far? What really excites you about this and why?

Dr. Nathan Stott:The greatest advancement in the QD industry as a whole is the broader transformation from nanoscience into nanotechnology as we see these materials moving from the laboratory to increasingly being put into application in actual commercial products. This year, more QD-based 4K HDTV brands entered the market than ever before with forecasts for millions of units per year and escalating. Obviously, this really excites us at QMC, in particular because we believe we are uniquely positioned to meet market demands with our proprietary high-throughput QD process, which may easily be expanded to meet higher capacity with minimal footprint as the market demands.

SMITHERS APEX:In your opinion, what are some of the obstacles facing the application of quantum dots?

Dr. Nathan Stott: The obstacles facing the application of QDs are with respect to quality, quantity, and stability. Any process used to manufacture QDs necessarily must produce high-quality materials with regards to uniformity and tunability in relatively high yield. Then such a process must be scalable to high throughput quantities and in a way that does not sacrifice quality due to such scalability problems as temperature and concentration gradients. Finally, the biggest problem facing the application of QD materials is stability towards heat, radiant flux, moisture, and oxidation/degradation pathways. Current solutions tend to be temporary ‘fixes’ by adding filters or work-arounds employing barrier layers, which add to production time and costs. At QMC, we have developed proprietary QDXTM cadmium-based quantum dots which are particularly stable in comparison to competing materials used in remote LED applications. We are also far along in development efforts to produce highly stable indium -based materials to expand our QDXTM portfolio.

SMITHERS APEX: In your opinion, where is the biggest area for advancement in the quantum dots market?

Dr. Nathan Stott: As already mentioned, the biggest area for advancement in the QD market is providing capacity for the growing demand of QD materials, which has been outpacing the current capability of most manufacturers due to their inability to effectively scale production. Furthermore, the ability to design newer QD materials to meet customer demands for varying and specific applications using scalable, highly reproducible processes is of great importance to the industry, and this is an area upon which we are focusing at QMC.

SMITHERS APEX:What presentation are you most looking forward to hearing at the Quantum Dots Forum?

Dr. Nathan Stott: I’m most interested in attending the presentation by Arthur Nozik on “QD Applications to Advanced Concepts for Solar Photon Conversion to Electricity & Solar Fuels.” Professor Nozik is a well-known pioneer and leading expert in the field of QD photovoltaic energy and fundamental research on multi-exciton generation (MEG) in such systems.

SMITHERS APEX:Why should attendees register to hear your presentation?

Dr. Nathan Stott: Most people have heard some variation of the statement that one hour of sunlight reaching the Earth is more than enough to supply an entire year of the world’s global energy needs. Since development of the first solar cells over four decades ago, photovoltaic production costs have come down one thousand times, and production numbers are increasing every year. The problem is that these numbers are just a drop in the bucket of what is necessary to meet global energy demands while minimizing pollution to keep our environment clean. Quantum Materials Corp began eight years ago as Solterra Renewable Technologies, and we will discuss our activities to develop and commercialize quantum dot solar cell photovoltaics as well as offer our views on how gigawatts of annual production can be achieved, offering magnitudes of production and cost advantages while maintaining a cleaner environment.


Read more about Dr. Stott's and other presentations taking place at the Quantum Dots Forum.