Quantom dots are a product of biological compounds known as peptides. Peptides are short chains of amino acids, or simply, small fragments of proteins. The peptides can be manipulated to assemble themselves into quantom dots through naturally occurring organic chemistry. Di-peptides will self-assemble into a two-nanometer crystalline structure that can generate a charge under mechanical strain, but is stable and even sometimes optical. Because of this, the battery can be used to generate useable and efficient electricity as well as colored light. Their structure creates a stability allowing it to last for thousands of charge cycles. This opens the doors to many great possibilities within the realm of industry.
Batteries use electrolytes to generate electrons. The quantom dots have properties that mimic electrons but generate a charge 5x greater when used in a battery. Not only are they more efficient, they are cheaper and leave a considerably smaller carbon footprint than battery acid. And, due to their ability to emit visible light, they can be used for displays as well. They are a giant step towards revolutionizing the future.
Currently, an Israeli technology company called StoreDot is creating these quantum dots and their prototype was built for the Samsung Galaxy 4. It is expected that by 2016, you could buy one of these chargers for $30. See it happen in real life on Youtube . And, hopefully by 2016, it will be able to be used in real life.
Posted by: Nicole Boisvert (10)
This is really interesting! It is great more efficient, energy saving methods are being investigated for something as simple as charging your phone. I wonder what else they will be able to use the quantom dot technology for?
ReplyDeletePosted by Morgan Matuszko
You're on the right path if you're thinking of that because quantom dots are being explored in many levels of industry. Currently, they are exploring the option of using quantum dots in solar panels. The quantom dots work better than regular solar cell because they concentrate solar radiation absorbed from a large area onto a significantly smaller solar cell.
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Wow. This is an awesome discovery and would be beneficial on so many levels, well maybe not for companies that make the standard, wasteful, chargers. I really hope that this company you mentioned, StoreDot, is successful and many other companies follow after them; I can only imagine positive things coming out of this.
ReplyDeleteNicole Peterkin
I remember so many times I would get so frustrated at my phone charger so reading about something like this definitely gives me feelings of relief. One question is that will there be enough of these quantum dots to go around?
ReplyDeletePosted by Jacob Geier
Researchers don't talk much about the availability of the dots, but I believe there are plenty of peptides to be used. Organic chemists could also probably find ways to artificially create di-peptides since they are assembled through amino acids. The chargers are projected to be pretty cheap and cost-efficient so they probably have a large supply.
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