Quantum Dots (Nobel Prize 2023) - Periodic Table of Videos

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2023 is awarded to Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexei Ekimov “for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots". More links and info in full description ↓↓↓
This video features chemist Martyn Poliakoff and physicist Philip Moriarty, both from the University of Nottingham.
Nobel Prize website on the 2023 chemistry award: www.nobelprize.org/prizes/che...
Previous chemistry Nobel Prize videos from us: bit.ly/periodicnobel
Catch Phil Moriarty over on our physics channel Sixty Symbols: bit.ly/Prof_Moriarty
The School of Chemistry at The University of Nottingham: bit.ly/NottChem
Videos on all 118 elements: bit.ly/118elements
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More chemistry at www.periodicvideos.com/
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And on Twitter at / periodicvideos
This episode was also generously supported by The Gatsby Charitable Foundation
Periodic Videos films are by video journalist Brady Haran: www.bradyharan.com/
Brady's Blog: www.bradyharanblog.com
Additional editing by James Hennessy
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[@Dogelition]

Minor correction: current displays don't use blue quantum dots. Blue light, either from an LED backlight ("QLED") or OLED emitters ("QD-OLED"), is used to excite red and green quantum dots to generate those two colors.

[@jtadevich]

Do a google search on "quantum dots display". You will find while not common, there are some displays which employ quantum dots to some degree. Samsung for instance seems to have some products. There's also a little info on wikipedia. Take care.

[@Aura-bu9jb]

Wait, I thought that in QLED the quantum dots are only used as a filter, and only QD-OLED actually uses them as light emitters. Maybe wikipedia mislead me, or I got something wrong. Could you maybe explain in more detail please?

[@tommihommi1]

they're used *like* filters in that they're in front of the actual light source, but work by turning monochromatic blue light into other colors with the effect discussed in this video

[@Aura-bu9jb]

@@tommihommi1 oh shoot, I didn't finish watching the video😅 Thanks for the explanation!

[@jtadevich]

@@Aura-bu9jb 🙂

[@dav1dsm1th]

I have to admit when quantum dots first started appearing in TV adverts the cynic in me thought it was just marketing people injecting another misplaced buzzword into their product names "because science". It's good to know it was actually based on some very clever science - and the very, very clever people involved have now been justifiably recognised with a Nobel Prize. Thanks for the videos.

[@davidlloyd3116]

I worked in the blood plasma industry, and Factor IX is passed through a 15nm virus filter, and then 20nm gold particles are then used (destructively) to show the filters weren't compromised. I was involved in the validation of the filters using real viruses, such as polio, which 15-20nm in size.

[@utkarshaswami2859]

Periodic videos always brings a smile on my face.

[@dereksavastano]

Facts I hope he’s okay though, I know we’re all getting older… But it sounds like his speech is slowing down a bit, He still obviously is incredibly brilliant. But this kinda hurts to watch. This man was my childhood, I’ll always owe my interest in Chemistry to two people; him being one of them…

[@ihrbekommtmeinenrichtigennamen]

Watching this video on a QD-OLED right now. Thank you, Louis, Alexei and Moungi, for making this possible!

[@PEGuyMadison]

FYI... gold is used in glassblowing to make "red" glass.

[@MichaelKingsfordGray]

So is Strontium.

[@dielaughing73]

​@@MichaelKingsfordGraythey used to use uranium too didn't they, or is it a product of decomposition of other elements?

[@funtitan4378]

@@dielaughing73 uranium has been used to make glass in yellow-green colors, and used in glazes to make orange and red ceramics, for hundreds of years. It was the primary use for the element until radioactivity was discovered

[@SupercriticalXenon]

The Nobel laureates totally deserved the prizes.

[@rursus8354]

Totally, utterly and exponentially!

[@lorenzoblum868]

How humble of you to decide who deserve and who doesn't.

[@olommentes]

Your approval will mean a lot to them

[@bryanpassifiume8255]

Okay

[@viewitnow3539]

I am sure they are ever so comforted in the fact that you approve.

[@TheMono25]

Yay a new chemistry lesson ( Chemistry and history ) the Only two subjects i liked at school

[@lorenzoblum868]

History is far from being accurate unlike chemistry...

[@satyris410]

@@lorenzoblum868 no history is ever accurate

[@dereksavastano]

Actually its more-so Chemistry and Physics. This is history for the future.

[@therobotFrom94]

seeing the gold nanoparticles reminds me of making some at The university of Nottingham when I attended as an A-level student for some masterclassess. My mind was blown

[@beeble2003]

Oh, wow. What a cool thing to do!

[@nuggetwagon]

It makes sense that it’s chemistry. It’s exquisite. 4:48

[@trainwreck3697]

Nice, did you happen to ever meet Martin?

[@therobotFrom94]

@@trainwreck3697 unfortunately not but I did seriously consider applying to Nottingham because of him!

[@zachheilman784]

There's an old NurdRage video where he makes quantum dots using Cadmium Selenide. All the same chemical but many different colors.

[@boydstephensmithjr]

My undergraduate honors thesis (2002) was simulating Quantum Dot Cellular Automata (QDCA). My advisor had published a paper that solved NP-class problems in P-class QDCA construction steps.

[@samhands275]

Brian name dropped in this video. My project supervisor last year. What a guy.

[@aloe7794]

Oh damn just yesterday I had this on my first Physics lecture in college Glad this channel is still uploading too, you guys are a gold mine of science!

[@milosristic1111]

Well,I am watching Your videos already 15 years and I promise I'll visit You someday in Nottingham ❤

[@milosristic1111]

In my country Serbia there is wide spread thinking that because Your Country is exit the EU that now You will decay Your economical growth because, unfortunately,people in my Country as You probably know already don't like EU... Silly CRAPS,our people is very little educated and it has one very bad property and that is Americans,EU and NATO are guilty for bombardment in 1999.That is absolutely BULSHITS just of one very little and jealously nation which doesn't see further of it's nause.Great Britain is by itself so strong that in the next at least 500 years will be the main economical giant even bigger than one Germany despite Germany is in EU and Great Britain isn't.I really think I'll visit Your Country someday when I come Abroad both with Germany and Whole North America over the Atlantic Ocean 🌊.Cheers 🙂👍

[@DragonFlame135]

In my chem 1 lab we made quantum dots last week using Cadmium selenide. Pretty strange that the Nobel prize was in the same topic.

[@thor1829]

Just shows how fast these breakthrough discoveries become part of the curriculum. I think that's really cool!

[@iteerrex8166]

Aside from some biology, all sciences and engineerings are physics, applied physics, specialized physics. Awesome stuff 👍

[@PhilBoswell]

…and biology is mostly applied chemistry, so it's turtles all the way down 🤣

[@llllllllllllllllllllllllIIIIl1]

@@PhilBoswell biology is applied chemistry, chemistry is applied physics, physics is applied maths, maths is applied philosophy,

[@martiddy]

There's a field that focuses on chemical biology and it definitely uses a lot of mathematical concepts

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

@@PhilBoswell No. The biology channel SubAnima has video precisely critiquing this perspective, including one specifically titled 'Can Biology be reduced to Physics?'. The science just isn't that simplistically reductive.

[@lorenzoblum868]

​@@llllllllllllllllllllllllIIIIl1 I tend to agree with your perspective although I would like to suggest "math is applied metaphysics" for the "rime" 😉

[@allmightyloaf7134]

I made quantum dots in a chemistry-focused Nanoscience lab this last university term. So cool to see that the resources that were cited in that lab are winning nobel prizes.

[@balaam_7087]

I love this channel. It’s a constant reminder of a whole world outside my little sphere. Today’s video is about someone winning a Nobel prize for something far beyond my realm of understanding, while I’m over here trying to figure out how to tie my boot laces so they don’t constantly come undone as I’m walking down the street 🫠

[@stevewallace853]

Double knot them 🙂

[@thomasg5968]

Where sandals…

[@gamarus0kragh]

The elegant solution is to change the round laces for flat. The inelegant is the double knot. the chemical one is to rub them with bees wax ;)

[@MusicBent]

My trick is to use a square knot. Either R over L, then L over R or vice versa. Takes some relearning, but doesn’t require a double knot so it’s still fast to tie and easy to undo 👍🏼

[@jpaulc441]

I'm the opposite - I know there's a whole world outside my sphere but I want to avoid it. Escapism is my life goal.

[@AntiDot70]

I wholeheartadly belive that professor Martyn deserves a Nobel prize in the field of global dispersion of educational awesomeness.

[@lagomoof]

Is there a Periodic Video on superatoms yet? Hearing about these quantum dots made me think that's what this was going to be about, but apparently not because it seems like Q-dot chemistry is largely the same, except for absorbed / reflected light, whereas, at least according to Wikipedia, superatoms can act like different elements entirely.

[@agentham]

Old school red stained glass is the color that it is due to it's gold content, just like that liquid. I always think of that Periodic Video every time I see red stained glass. What a cool world we live in.

[@williammark1762]

Can you do a video on the Nobel Prize in Physics as it deal with electrons

[@thomasvanwyk]

Amazing job well done how are you

[@mr.9931]

How amazing that we now not only understand how these quantum dots work (color wise), but I also find it amazing that we know how to create them reliably in a controlled environment. I also have a question concerning a carbon molecule. Noting that Carbon 60 (buckyballs) are roughly spherical and very small, do you think they can be classified as quantum dots? I would think so, noting that C-60 in a solution is a violet color (in which I believe is due to the molecules being so small, and violet is the smallest visible wavelength in the electromagnetic spectrum) I'd really like to hear feedback!

[@rjung_ch]

Liked this interview a lot, thanks! 👍💪✌️

[@gregstrosnider3505]

I use gold particles to test the integrity of viral nano Planova filters for gene therapy viral clearance in downstream production. I love the red color to the solution! The filter capsule is just a cluster of fibers with nano pores but it's clear and when you inject the gold particle solution, the fibers trap the color and the filtrate is clear. The fibers light up a awesome purple color!

[@scrotiemcboogerballs1981]

Great video thanks for sharing

[@MrRobertFarr]

Hi ! I am a new subscriber. Robert Farr BSc Hons . A student of Dr. David Harwood who's PhD thesis led to the creation of Liquid Crystal Ds. Dr. Harwood was affectionately dubbed : Dave Upside Down Head. Upside Down Head explained how to manufacture flat screen, colour screens. Perhaps he should be awarded the prize next year ?

[@azrobbins01]

Anyone else notice the inside of the mug on the desk at 4:37? Lot of flavor in that residue!

[@nestormartinez1593]

Reminds me of how in nature blue is made with structures trapping light and only blue being able to escape the structure

[@thececil021]

Yes, I had that thought as well. For those that are wondering what this means- blue is almost impossible to synthesize biologically but blue insects, etc. have scales that align in such a way as to appear blue.

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

@@thececil021 Yeah, otherwise known as structural coloration.

[@jlp1528]

Nature: why make blue with chemicals when I can just do nano engineering instead?

[@ourmuse]

Blue is such an expensive and cool colour. I wonder why only blue 😮

[@jlp1528]

@@ourmuse SciShow has covered this. It has to do with blue being a smaller wavelength and a higher energy than other colors of light.

[@resqmeskincare6175]

awesome stuff!

[@rmbt]

This is exactly what I expect how a professor and his office should look like 🙂

[@arandomperson8336]

I made quantum dots in one of my undergrad labs (I think it was P-Chem II but don't hold me to that). They looked exactly like 0:33!

[@galaxia4709]

cool! so beautiful!

[@thecsslife]

This reminds me of when I synthesied silver nanoparticles to dope perovskite materials for novel battery electrodes. The nanoparticle solutions also had unusual colours depending on the concentration and ratios of different reagents (as well as temperature).

[@RiceProfELEC571]

Another nice video. I'm a big fan and a long time viewer... but it is a mistake by Phil to conflate the physics of the plasmon resonance in gold nanoparticles due to Maxwell's equations with the change in band structure in semiconductor nanoparticles due to quantum confinement. Cheers.

[@sheastewart7608]

Right, not the best example...but it is a "size effect" determining optical properties so its not unrelated.

[@kkupsky6321]

Doc moriarty and poliakov are gems. I prolly spelled them wrong but that was the light affects

[@bigsarge2085]

Fascinating!

[@alexcarniglia8141]

Thanks for the video.

[@BostonBonka]

Your videos are awsome!

[@ValidatingUsername]

3:00 Its an atomic macro structure that utilizes the overlapping of emissions 😊

[@arkzbh]

Thanks good doctor for explaining it to common folks like us. You would be amazed to know how you made generation of people to follow scince

[@Beryllahawk]

What a wonderful thing to learn about on my Sunday morning. Never even heard of quantum dots before but it turns out I've been staring at them for hours every day as I work! Ha!

[@LReBe7]

To give you a intuitive conception for why quantum dots show some fluorescent behavior and the color being linked to the size, it comes down to the surface of the particle having a resonance for how the electron distribution can be influenced by incoming photons.

[@sheastewart7608]

Isnt it more to do with the separation of electronic states as the number of atoms involved becomes insufficient to have an actual band structure? Its that and the particle size is smaller than the mean free path of an electron in the material. What you desribed almost sounds like LSPR?

[@LReBe7]

Yes, it's possible I have not understood quantum dots completely, but I was testing Cunningham's law.

[@DavidBeddard]

Oh, hey Phil! 👋 Nice to see you!

[@damelyngdoh2370]

What properties are affected by altering the size of these particles? Does it also alter some of the chemical properties of these substances?

[@CausticLemons7]

Can you explain some of the chemistry involved with genomes and especially the new mRNA technology? I bet that has some interesting molecular action!

[@KFCGamiingTeam]

This video got me really excited as a quantum engineering sutdent

[@shiprachaudhary7805]

Was just reading it in paper and here we go

[@MichaelKingsfordGray]

Awesome. (The Tetrapod has a medieval name: Caltrop.)

[@Rubrickety]

Of course Phil is drinking gold nanoparticles. His love of heavy metal is legendary.

[@TheophilosPorter]

So what are the practical applications? How does this change a substance's physical properties? Are getting closer to Scotty's transparent aluminum?

[@gerryjamesedwards1227]

The red coloured gold is a modern version of an ancient Roman glass-making process, for deep red stained glass using gold. I have it in a few art history books that the secret to its manufacture was lost at some point. I'm guessing that the huge advances in nano-technology, and making nano-particles, has enabled this? I wonder whether anyone has used it to make glass yet?

[@sheastewart7608]

No doubt. Gold nanparticles are a classic example. Faraday I believe was the first to really document experiments with them.

[@muhammadvad8207]

Congratulations 🌹 Your videos about quantum Dot's is very informative....

[@houtansadeghi]

We had nobles for organic, inorganic, physical…….chemistry. It’s time to give one for chemical education. I nominate the prof for that. After all without people like him there will be no inspiration

[@jasonsmall5602]

If only there was a Nobel prize for chemistry education.

[@robinbrowne5419]

Atoms are awesome, and so is Periodic Videos 👍

[@arcanics1971]

There's something comforting about seeing that Prof Poliakoff doesn't clean his cup very often, so the inside is 'brew stained,' just like my own!

[@surrog]

Can't wait for the video on artificial atoms :)

[@curiousuranus810]

My old tutor, Steve Gurman, was involved with quantom dots 23 years ago, why hasn't he got a mention?

[@markusjacobi-piepenbrink9795]

Now its time to reunite chemistry and physics.

[@appa609]

They've basically been contiguous since the 60's.The boundary between the two is basically like the border of Europe and Asia: arbitrary.

[@Thesignalpath]

You didn't mention that Quantum Dot research was done at Bell Labs - Louis Brus did this work at Bell Labs before he went to Columbia.

[@dangleecock6704]

This triggered a memory of a video about those that drank nano gold and its health properties. Looks like im going back down that rabbit hole again 😂🔎

[@seanp8220]

Been a while since a new video. Looking forward to next ...

[@expressoaddict]

Come on now, this is clearly magic. How else you can control individual atoms with a stick, making structures, or manipulating electrons to emit specific wavelength? Well deserved nobel price sir, well deserved. These guys are modern superheroes and they are literally the reason humanity are evolving to the next level. Thanks guys!

[@Pawtacle]

I knew that we've been able to make smaller and smaller things over time but I had no idea science and tools have advanced to a level of manually building things from atoms! That's absolutely bonkers! :D

[@lufax]

Look for "A Boy and His Atom". It's a stop-motion movie done by IBM by moving atoms

[@sheastewart7608]

​@@lufaxand that was done a little bit ago now

[@lufax]

@@sheastewart7608 Yup! A decade ago! Currently people like to use Electron Microscopes to do all sorts of drawings and logos with molecules

[@andrewcaldwell5026]

Thank you Professor I enjoyed the completely pronouncing the Russians name.

[@harriehausenman8623]

The Professor really seems to care about his language. You can also see in some interviews, that he puts more effort into his speech when on camera.

[@michaelmyrick6973]

no electron has ever been recorded in history. the size of the frequency is what we detect 5:28. they way they interact is by only letting x through. vision is based on the sire of the EMF wave. not there energy within. "atom" detector consist of a lazer pointed at a target waiting for an obstacle to pass then its called a particle.

[@peterfireflylund]

Zyprexa deficiency detected.

[@stefanoberli5920]

Someone made an AI voice model of Professor Poliakoff, heard it on some KZbin shorts. Not really sure how to feel about that, weird times we live in..

[@Alex-qd7ly]

yo wsp bro love ur vids

[@zephaniahgreenwell8151]

It is structure-property relationships on a nano-scale. Even if it is physics, it is also chemistry.

[@sheastewart7608]

The point of the prize is chiefly recognizing the controlled and reproducible synthesis of the QDs. Otherwise you cant reasonably study their physics.

[@TimRrstrm]

So, Brady, by including their name (I'm not even going to attempt to spell it) at 7:47 I assume you've got an interview lined up?

[@wtfpwnz0red]

Crossover between sixty symbols and periodic videos? Today is a good day

[@seansczecienski5606]

Is my Samsung Quantom Dot TV a result of this discovery?

[@ikbintom]

Yes!

[@JamesMulvale]

Anyone else think that the three scientists were going to be called "Dr Red, Dr Green and Dr Blue"?

[@wvvvwv2]

Hahaha

[@irinagetun1631]

Great idea 🙂

[@buddhavskungfu]

They anodized crystalline molecules with heat at the nano scale?

[@Lucius_Chiaraviglio]

That last comment at the end -- win. I'll definitely have to keep in mind that if I ever get a call telling me I won a Nobel Prize, it must be a hoax.

[@michealwestfall8544]

Could you make water into quantum dots. Say by injecting it in a nonpolar solution and have it suspended in the nonpolar solution.

[@sheastewart7608]

They wont show the same optical properties as these ultra small semi-conductor particles

[@munjee2]

I have a very uncommen name, so it was rather startling to hear Sir Martyn say my name, i have legitimately never heard of another person with the same name as me before, although its romanised differently

[@JuliusUnique]

are you sure it is because of the electrons? I thought the size just causes different wavelengths to be absorbed because of the wavelength matching the size of the particles

[@sheastewart7608]

Brother, absorption of light is due to photon-electron interaction.

[@JuliusUnique]

@@sheastewart7608 yeah but it is ALWAYS due to jumping electrons, so there is no information in that statement, meanwhile I add information by explaining that a different sized molecule causes different wavelengths to make the electrons jump

[@sheastewart7608]

@@JuliusUnique all ive gotta say is, youre oversimplifying it and thinking about it wrong. The size change causes a change in the electronics. I dont have the time nor the desire to unload my 9 years of studying into a youtube comment though.

[@JuliusUnique]

@@sheastewart7608 I bet it's because you can't

[@sheastewart7608]

@@JuliusUnique all you gotta do is look me up on google scholar to know youre wrong Better yet, here you go: Chemical Science 12 (4), 1227-1239, 2021 Chemical Communications 59 (24), 3546-3549, 2023 ChemNanoMat 6 (9), 1320-1324, 2020

[@Crosshair1990]

I recognize the small bottle of nanoparticles, I have the same brand of GNPs in my fridge in my lab :)

[@PoweredMinecart]

If it is gold nanoparticles in that solution how can something so dense be suspended in solution and not sink to the bottom?

[@sheastewart7608]

Capping agents

[@artemking4460]

The way he said "when i had more hair" lol

[@Deltabreeze9]

Mario Batali works in quantum dots??

[@patrick247two]

That cup has seen serious tea.

[@hpalpha7323]

Yeah! Science!

[@robertmiller1299]

The Prof has issued a challenge!

[@gameeverything816]

Neat

[@douro20]

The colour of nanoparticles in solution seems to imitate the colour of their emission spectra. A gold vapour laser, for instance, emits in a very deep red, at 628nm.

[@Punnery]

The bit with the red gold made me wonder--is this related to the phenomenon involved in the Lycurgus Cup?

[@moropikkuu]

It is indeed! They are Gold Nanoparticles, but not Quantum dots, since gold is not a semiconductor. It is still a nano size effect that arises once you go lower than a certain particle size, same as with quantum dots. Though the actual effect that you see is a different one, not the same as with quantum dots. I‘m not sure Prof. Moriarty made that sufficiently clear.

[@PaulFisher]

The health quacks are more into drinking colloidal silver, not gold. Look up Stan Jones, the libertarian who turned himself blue. Gwyneth Paltrow has also hawked colloidal silver (unsurprisingly), as has Alex Jones.

[@oldadajbych8123]

It is nice to meet the real Professor Moriarty.

[@Torby4096]

Polliakovium

[@JustOneAsbesto]

2:41 That's also how opals work. The different colours are sheets of quartz nanospheres of different sizes.

[@sheastewart7608]

No, opals are whats known as a photonic crystal. They operate via diffraction, not absoprtion followed by fluorescence.

[@SargeScum]

If you ever go to Sweden, make sure to visit the Nobel Laureates Museum.

[@danielbueche5686]

So are quantum dots basically synthetic opals?

[@sheastewart7608]

No. Different physics. Opals get their color via diffraction. Look up "photonic crystal"

[@TheMono25]

High school in scotland only three people within ten years got general credit Award in chemistry I was one of them I don't understand how I did it. Because I have adhd and dyslexia 🤔

[@EXPLORER-hq1us]

I have adhd too 😢, please tell how 😢

[@peterfireflylund]

Lots of practice at your meth lab?

[@TheMono25]

All i can say is Common sense is a very handy tool and can help u all your life

[@isaacgrant3784]

It was awarded to one for the red the other for the green and the other for the blue

[@ikitclaw7146]

Thinking it was a hoax just shows how humble they are, "My work achieved greatness? nah its a joke".

[@unvergebeneid]

It's crazy to think that even the Romans already used gold nanoparticles to dye glass red. There's really no excuse they didn't figure out quantum physics from there come to think of it 😄

[@Flox01000111]

nanoparticles occur naturally

[@ferretyluv]

They didn’t have the technology to do the double slit experiment.

[@pingosimon]

Sorry to make a critical comment on a channel that I love so much, but I really hope the "side angle" cutaway to the interviewee was a one-time thing! It's distracting and unnecessary. Jump cuts and zoom-ins are fine!