Quantum dots (QDs) signify an artificial engineered material - nanometer sized pieces of semiconductor with inorganic or organic coatings. QDs typically offer promising optical properties: bright and energy efficient, colour-tuneable emission and strong efficient absorption. Emitted light can be brighter and colours purer with lower power consumption, when compared to commonly employed organic dyes or rare earth ions in colour displays and LEDs. 

However, most currently employed semiconductor QDs are composed of toxic/scarce elements (Cd, Se, Zn, In, Te). Our SQ-dots are from majority composed of silicon, an inherently non-toxic and one of the most abundant elements available on Earth. Since the natural source of silicon is sand, up-scalability of such nanotechnologies is virtually unlimited and without major consequences to the environment, economy or health. Besides non-toxicity and resource abundance, SQ-dots offer tuneable emission colours and excellent photo-chemical stability. 

Silicon as a material is generally considered unsuitable for light emission and efficient absorption due to its inherently indirect band-structure. Silicon QDs offer slightly enhanced emission capacities, but uncompetitive with respect to the QDs composed of the hazardous materials like CdSe or ZnS, which is due to their direct band-structure. Also, silicon QDs have further critical issues with their emission colour. SQ-dots produced by SpectriS-Dot have modified properties thanks to admixture of Carbon. The emission efficiency can be as high as in direct band-structure QD materials with full range colour tuneability from UV/blue to red/near-infrared. Finally, SQ-dots are inherently non-toxic, offer excellent photo-stability and can be functionalized by virtually any (bio-)molecule, making them highly suitable for medical applications.

Applications of SQ-dots are numerous, including security coatings, medical bio-imaging markers, bio-sensors, flexible thin displays, LEDs and many others. In this way, we provide a sustainable platform technology opening new markets.