Nanocrystal Coating = White LED Big Breakthrough?

I wonder if I should get some of the current white leds or wait. Anybody has experience? Advice?

All I can say is thank goodness. Am I the only one who thinks thinks current LED lights are pretty hard to see by? It's like the light doesn't actually illuminate anything. This sounds like a great breakthrough.

Quote from newscientist article "Crystal coat warms up LED light":

"These crystals are made from a core of cadmium selenide with a surrounding layer of zinc sulphide."

Cadmium doesn't strike me as very huggable. The efficiency of the LEDs still does.

Yea, the nanocrystal they're talking about are quantum dots. 3 years ago (summer before 11th grade), I did a research project for my science research class at a college on quantum dots--in other words, I had no idea what was going on, but anyway.

This is just one of the promising things about quantum dots. It's possible they can use them for quantum encoding--which is litterally impossible to hack. There's a bunch of other cool things they'r working on with them. Cool peice of tech.

We've been testing various LED lights for a gallery/museum. A $130 LED 12w spot is about like a 75w incandescent spot. The brightness is getting close to making sense, but the color temperatures are way off. When you buy warm white you get pink light. Or the super blue. Hopefully this new technology won't take too long to come to market. We figure to save up to $7k a year if we're able to switch to LED.

I bought a couple of the LED lights, and like the one guy said "It's like the light doesn't actually illuminate anything." I found exactly the same thing. I'm knee deep in CFLs so I'm good, but if something like this came out I could definitely start phasing out CFLs for more efficient lighting (something that sounds great to write about in 2008!)

The efficiency on those LEDs looks great! Still, it's going to be years before they actually get those in LED light bulbs. In the meantime, the existing LED bulbs are really great for certain things- like night lights, and reading lights.
This website has some photos of them actually being used:
http://weloveleds.com/

I wonder about nano-anything...have read some reports of nanoparticles from cosmetics are absorbed into the skin and show up in vital organs, and as they are washed down the sink, enter into our water supplies, the oceans, etc.

So a question I have is not about how innovative humans can be coming up with something newer/better from the prior product(s), but what are the ramifications of that newer product cradle to cradle?
For the big picture - what happens when this newer bulb gets 'thrown away'?

"I wonder about nano-anything...have read some reports of nanoparticles from cosmetics are absorbed into the skin and show up in vital organs, and as they are washed down the sink, enter into our water supplies, the oceans, etc. "

Nano just means very small. Nature is full of intert nanoparticules, tons and tons of them.

In fact, life is basically nanotechnology that works. DNA, proteins, cells, RNA.. Basically nanotech, but much more complex than what we can do now.

"In fact, life is basically nanotechnology that works. DNA, proteins, cells, RNA"

Yeah, but all those cellular components, and all other organic molecules synthesized by other living things, are biodegradable. Nanoparticles aren't, at least not by the spectrum of lytic enzymes present in the vast majority of living organisms.

I have little doubt that the 22nd century will have physicians specializing in nanoparticle diseases that we can not yet begin to fathom today.

Scott Walker, MD

""Yeah, but all those cellular components, and all other organic molecules synthesized by other living things, are biodegradable. Nanoparticles aren't, at least not by the spectrum of lytic enzymes present in the vast majority of living organisms. "

That's the biological stuff, but there's a lot of nano-particles of non-biological origin as well.

"I have little doubt that the 22nd century will have physicians specializing in nanoparticle diseases that we can not yet begin to fathom today."

I'm sure of that too. There's no free lunch and mistakes will doubtlessly be made. A long time before the 22nd century too.

But there also probably be diseases that we can cure thanks to nanotech, as well as cleaner sources and storage for energy, a reduction in poverty because of reduced costs of production, etc.

The important thing is to do our best to reduce the downsides and profit from the upsides. Same with all technologies.

There is still some way to go, has the light degre angles are still too focused. Some LED don't spread at more then 12 degre (the cheaper ones). If your buying LEDs to play with them, thats something to consider. But again, lighting is too focus on a surface, working desk, for reading, etc... so you do want it to focus.

Anyway, I truely find the potential has I have my 27 LED white light flashlight for my bike and has went without changing the 3 AAA battery for months.

I say:" Go nuts making them lights, put money into it... it's way worth the ride. BUT TAKE THEM OLD LIGHT OFF THE SHELF THOUGH".

Sean
I read your post about outfitting the museum with LED lighting and am curious as to what type of lighting you are using.

There are various companies out there selling LED lighting that range from dubious to superb. From cheap $20 bulbs that don't have a good color representation to high quality $200 bulbs that are guaranteed to last 14years running 11hours a day.

There are LED products that have a great color representation and come in a range of color temperatures (warm white 2700k to cool white 5500k). The new next generation surface mount LED products offer improved performance.

One great thing about LED lighting for gallery/museum use is that these lights emit no UV light that can damage artwork and priceless artifacts.

I am a student in a Sustainable Tech program and right now I'm interning with a R&D company that specializes in LED lighting and Solar Photovoltaics. Send me an email: maui chris @ gmail.com (no spaces). I'd be happy to share what I know about LEDs and the current generation of lighting.

-Chris Taylor

I have been trying to convert myself to CFL's, and will happily take up LED's when they are ready, but I am at a sticking point right now, in that all the CFL's I have found are made in China. I am sure that any good I can do is negated by loose manufacturing practices, and the economic damage I do to myself by buying Chinese imports. Can anybody tell me who has lamps that are not Chinese made? Are the LED's also coming from China?

Lighting America of Maine has a 74 watt LED fixture which produces light equil to a 400 watt sodium vapor fixture. it is amaizing!! beter quality light using a fraction of the electricty!!!

I was hoping Chris would let us know more about LED lights. I was wondering arent most of the companies that make LED lights based outside of the United States??

I work in the construction industry and helped set up a state of the art house in Washington state with LEDs. We took them all back out except for a few security points. I swear by them on my bike, kids night light, & anything that I don't mind an unnatural harsh light. I love them, but won't have them in my kitchen or living room until they can be made Natural looking. I hope technology will catch up.

300 lumens per watt of visible light NOT 300 lumens per watt of input power! be careful the way that you interpret these figures. this is not a very efficient light source.....

Vanderbilt University published such findings about 4 years ago. This is old news. Just someone else copying old results. R&D is already well under way with products liekly to hit the streets in mere years.

Be careful about what you read. There is currently no legislation about how LED light bulbs are to be rated. Companies usually double comparisons to incandescent bulbs. Lights of America is also notorious for this. The highest efficiency LED currently on the market is about equivalent to a fluorescent bulb. Look for the term CREE or HP (Hewlett Packard). CFLs are slightly less efficient than their tubular counterparts. HID lamps, such as Mercury Vapor, Metal Halide and Sodium Vapor are somewhat more efficient. The current LED bulbs on the market are probably NOT using the expensive CREE LEDs and are therefore about half as efficient. To make a claim that a 74 Watt LED lamp produces as much light output as a 400 Watt Sodium Vapor lamp is simply ludicrous. This would even exceed the efficiency of the LEDs described in this article. These new LEDs should exceed CREE LEDs about 3 fold since CREE LEDs produce nearly 100 Lumens per Watt. (Some claims place them slightly higher.)