World-first nano-particle luminaires showcase growing benefits
The nano-particles enable luminaires with precisely-tuned spectra to be made which will be ideal for lighting to stimulate plant growth.
Cumbria LED lighting company Marl and Manchester-based Nanoco, which is a world leader in the development and production of cadmium-free quantum dots, showcased at LuxLive what was claimed to be the world’s first CFQD Quantum Dot LED lighting product, the Orion QD.
Nanoco’s particles are cadmium-free, absorb light over a wide wavelength range including blue, and emit at a colour determined by their size.
Photon for photon, they are not quite as efficient as some phosphors with quantum efficiency being 80-90% compared with 99% but quantum dots can deliver a higher system efficiency owing to a narrow spectrum colours (40-60nm wide in wavelength terms) being used. The result is that light is only converted to where it is needed.
For horticulture applications the nano-particle luminaires generate light containing blue and red, but not green which matches the absorption spectrum of chlorophyll, with none of the light it reflects.
Marl is using Nanoco particles embedded in thin flexible plastic sheets as remote ‘phosphors’ over arrays of blue LEDs in its luminaires.
In additon to horticulture applications the technology also has potential in retail and architecture applications.
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