Graphene Quantum Dots: Introduction and Market News - Page 2

A study recently conducted by Graphene Flagship partners the University of Strasbourg and CNRS, France, in collaboration with Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, has shown that graphene quantum dots are biodegradable by two enzymes found in the human body.

Graphene quantum dots (GQDs) are tiny flakes usually smaller than five nanometres that have potential for many applications. GQDs are fluorescent, so they can absorb light and then emit it, often at a different wavelength. They are also so small that they can penetrate cells. Together, these properties pave the way to a wide array of applications in bioimaging, biosensing and new therapies - among other potential uses.

Researchers at UC Santa Cruz have reported the first direct visualization of quantum dots in bilayer graphene, revealing the shape of the quantum wave function of the trapped electrons. The finding of this research could provide important fundamental knowledge, required for developing quantum information technologies based on bilayer graphene quantum dots.

Image from Nano Letters

"There has been a lot of work to develop this system for quantum information science, but we've been missing an understanding of what the electrons look like in these quantum dots," said corresponding author Jairo Velasco Jr., assistant professor of physics at UC Santa Cruz.

A recent study by researchers at Gauhati University, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and DAIICT in India has demonstrated a soil moisture sensor made from graphene quantum dots, which are nanometer-sized fragments of graphene.

Water sensors are vital for various agriculture applications, like keeping track of the watering schedule for a large number of plants, such as for a field of crops. Soil moisture sensors measure the water content in the soil to avoiid crop destruction by under or over watering the field.

Researchers at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) recently presented what they say is the first mechanically-tunable monolayer graphene QD whose electronic properties can be modified by in-plane nanometer displacements.

The ability to precisely manipulate individual charge carriers can be considered as a cornerstone for single-electron transistors and for electronic devices of the future, including solid-state quantum bits (qubits). Quantum dots (QDs) are at the heart of these devices.

Researchers from Seoul National University have examined graphene quantum dots' (GQDs') efficiency as anti-inflammatory therapy for colitis. The team speculated that graphene quantum dots may be suitable for treating intestinal bowel diseases (IBDs) because of their low toxicity in vivo and ease of clearance.

In their study, GQDs were intraperitoneally injected to dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)induced chronic and acute colitis model, and its efficacy has been confirmed. In particular, GQDs effectively prevented tissue degeneration and ameliorated intestinal inflammation.

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy (FE) has selected three projects to receive approximately USD$3 million in federal funding for cost-shared research and development projects.

Among these projects is a laboratory-scale coal-derived graphene process the University of North Dakota will demonstrate a laboratory-scale coal-derived graphene process to produce graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide, and graphene quantum dots starting from domestic US coal.

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their colleagues have used graphene and STM technology to create and image a novel pair of quantum dots — tiny islands of confined electric charge that act like interacting artificial atoms. Such coupled quantum dots could serve as a robust quantum bit, or qubit, the fundamental unit of information for a quantum computer. Moreover, the patterns of electric charge in the island can’t be fully explained by current models of quantum physics, offering an opportunity to investigate rich new physical phenomena in materials.

a system of coupled quantum dots taken by STM shows electrons orbiting within two concentric sets of rings, separated by a gap. The inner set of rings represents one quantum dot; the outer, brighter set represents a larger, outer quantum dot. Credit: NIST

The NIST -led team included researchers from the University of Maryland NanoCenter and the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan. The team used the ultrasharp tip of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) as if it were a stylus of sorts. Hovering the tip above an ultracold sheet of graphene, the researchers briefly increased the voltage of the tip.

Turkey-based Quantag Nanotechnologies was established in 2014 as a spin-off from a Turkey-based market-leading petroleum company to develop advanced tagging technologies. The company offers tagging solutions (which it calls Quantum Tagging Technology) based on quantum dots - and is offering complete systems based on its own tags (QDs) and sensors (readers).

Quantag has already deployed two commercial solutions for the brand protection market in, both in Turkey. One is used in fuel tagging and the other is used to tag paper towel rolls in automated dispensers so that they only work with certified (marked) brands.

A team of researchers at IIT-Gandhinagar in India has discovered an unexpected phenomenon that could have significant implications on the existing protocols followed to synthesize graphene and other two dimensional (2D) nanomaterials.

A popular method to synthesize graphene is liquid-phase exfoliation, in which the graphite powder is mixed in a suitable liquid medium and exposed to bursts of high-intensity sound energy (ultrasonication). This ultrasonic energy delaminates the layered parent crystals into daughter nanosheets that suspend and swim in the organic solvents to form a stable dispersion of 2D nanomaterials.

ZEN Graphene Solutions has signed an agreement with Chemisar Laboratories to provide various consulting services which will include the use of 2,300 square feet of office and laboratory space in Guelph, Ontario starting October 1, 2019. This office will become the company’s new graphene research and development center which will include a small-scale graphene processing and production facility. Additional space is available in the building which will allow ZEN to grow as needed.

In the coming months, ZEN is aiming to setup small-scale graphite purification and graphene-related production facilities including Graphene Quantum Dots (GQD’s) and Graphene Oxide (GO). These products will be available for research and development, application development and for commercial use.