The Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to three scientists who developed ‘quantum dots’, metal particles as small as ㎚ (nanometers).
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences’ Nobel Committee announced on the 4th that it had selected Alexei Ekimov, CEO of Nanocrystal Technology, Professor Louis Bruce of Columbia University, and Professor Mounji Bawendi of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
The Nobel Committee said, “Quantum dots have brought the greatest benefit to humanity. “Scientists predict that in the future quantum dots will be able to contribute to flexible electronic devices, small sensors, thin solar cells, and quantum communication,” he said, explaining the reason for the award. They received 11 million kronor (1.36 billion won) for one-third. We share it one by one.
Quantum dots are materials with optical characteristics that change the color of light they emit depending on their size. It is a round shape made of thousands to tens of thousands of metal atoms gathered together. Although it is made up of thousands of atoms, it is very small at just a few tens of nanometers (nm), so it maintains quantum mechanical properties and was given the name ‘quantum dot’, which means ’round-shaped quantum’.
The three award-winning scientists are those who discovered the optical properties of quantum dots and developed a chemical synthesis method to apply them to industry. Alexei Ekimov, CEO of Nanocrystal Technology, and Louis Bruce, a professor at Columbia University, first discovered the ‘quantum size effect’ in 1981 and 1982, respectively, in which the color of light emitted changes depending on the size of a lump of metal atoms. published a thesis.
Until then, it was thought that an interesting scientific fact had been discovered: that the size of a quantum changes its size when its size changes. Quantum dots entered the industrial realm in 1993 when Professor Mounji Bawendi of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) developed a method to chemically synthesize quantum dots of different sizes. Professor Jeong So-hee of the Department of Energy Science at Sungkyunkwan University said, “Professor Bawendi has researched and attempted most of the application methods that can be used with quantum dots,” and “made their spread in industrial applications possible.”
In Korea, Hyun Taek-hwan, director of the Nanoparticle Research Center at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), published a method to mass-produce quantum dots of a desired size in the international academic journal ‘Nature Materials’ in 2004. At the time, Director Hyun’s paper was cited more than 3,000 times, and Clarivate, a global academic information analysis company, nominated Director Hyun as a candidate for the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Quantum dots are used in many different ways in our daily lives. Samsung Electronics’ ‘quantum dot display’, which is already familiar in Korea, is a display that utilizes quantum dots. In the case of quantum dots, they have a great advantage in that they do not need a ‘backlight’ to emit light because they emit different light depending on their size, and the range of light that can be expressed is very wide.
In the bio field, quantum dots are also widely used to observe the movement path or reaction mechanism of a specific protein. The late Japanese scientist Osamu Shimomura developed a fluorescent protein used for the same purpose and won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Because quantum dots are composed of metal atoms, they can be more useful in that they have higher stability than fluorescent proteins.
Recently, sensors and quantum communication using quantum dots are being actively researched. Because quantum dots can absorb light of a specific wavelength much more precisely than existing devices, they are suitable for making sensitive sensors. For example, if quantum dots are created in a region that can absorb light by avoiding the wavelengths absorbed by the skin, it is possible to detect light that has passed through the skin. Professor Jeong explained, “For autonomous driving to be commercialized, a sensor that can detect objects well even at night is needed, and quantum dots can be used in this area as well.”
Quantum dots are expected to be useful in quantum communication as they can detect a single photon or generate a photon.
Cho Min-haeng, a professor of chemistry at Korea University, said, “In material development research, whether the material has been commercialized and applied to daily life is an important criterion for winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In that respect, quantum dots would have received a large additional point.”
Meanwhile, for this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the list of winners was leaked about 2 hours and 40 minutes before the announcement. The Nobel Committee is famous for being so strict about security that it only contacts laureates 1-2 hours in advance. Reuters, Associated Press, etc. reported that the Nobel Committee mistakenly disclosed the names of three Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry in an e-mail notification sent to the Swedish media ahead of the award ceremony. In response, Johan Öqvist, chairman of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, told Reuters, “It was a mistake by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences,” but added, “The meeting (to decide on the Nobel Prize) started at 9:30 a.m. (4:30 p.m. Korean time) and the winner has not yet been selected.” However, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry ultimately went to three scientists who were on the leaked list.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.