Nobel Prize in chemistry awarded for research into quantum dots in TVs

The Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded Wednesday to three scientists for their fundamental discoveries in nanotechnology, particles once considered impossibly small to make, with applications in television screens and LED lamps and to instruments that allow doctors to see the vasculature of a tumor.

The prize was given to Moungi Bawendi of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Louis Brus of Columbia University and Alexei Ekimov of Nanocrystals Technology in New York. It stirred controversy because in a highly unusual development, the names of the winners were leaked in Swedish media four hours before they were made public.

The development of nanoparticles, a new class of materials in which changes in size also result in changes in all of the properties of particles, such as color, optical, electrical and even melting point, was first theorized in 1937.

So how small are the particles? Consider how much smaller a soccer ball is than the entire Earth. Quantum dots are that much smaller than the soccer ball. “For a long time, nobody thought you could make such a small particle,” said Johan Aqvist, the chairman of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.

But working independently in the early 1980s, first Ekimov and then Brus succeeded. As often happens with scientific discoveries, however, the breakthroughs used cumbersome methods to achieve results that were less than ideal (it was hard to control the size and quality of the particles), but another scientist discovered an elegant method that allowed for widespread use of the technology.

In 1993, Bawendi revolutionized the process, devising a way to create seed, or beginner particles that could then be carefully controlled using temperature. The method allowed him to stop the process to create particles of just the right size and quality. The size of the particles is reflected in their color, which follows a spectrum that starts with red for the smallest, then progressing to violet, orange, yellow and green as they grow bigger.

The Nobel laureates continued the march of nanotechnology, which dates back more than 150 years to the work of the English scientist Michael Faraday, who created the first gold nanoparticles while mounting thin sheets of gold leaf onto microscope slides.

Though the science took decades to refine, the equipment involved is neither costly nor difficult to obtain. Students working in a good high school laboratory can reproduce experiments in nanoscience, said Rigoberto Advincula, a professor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee. Advincula called the Nobel Committee decision a “really good pick” and “long overdue.”

The possibility for the future is that the nanotechnology methods “can be used with artificial intelligence and machine learning to achieve even greater heights,” Advincula added. The results could include faster ways to make a medical diagnosis or develop the prototypes for new sensors.

Inspired by the possibilities, the field of nanotechnology is growing rapidly. “There are many people working very intensely in this field to develop applications,” said Olof Ramström, a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry and a professor of chemistry at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

“I am absolutely thrilled,” said Judith Giordan, the president of the American Chemical Society, after hearing the prize announced Wednesday. “This is a terrific example of theorizing a phenomenon,” producing it in the lab “and then taking it to the next level of manufacturing.” Giordan said the most exciting applications would use nanotechnology to make better and more energy efficient solar cells, and to create probes that will allow doctors and scientists to view cancer cells.

In England, Gill Reid, president of the Royal Society of Chemistry congratulated the three Nobel laureates in a statement: “Great science benefits from diverse viewpoints as part of a collective endeavour, and this year’s prize is a great example of that – people working in different labs, in different countries, approaching a problem from different angles. We don’t work in isolation in chemistry – teamwork is both a fundamentally important aspect of how science is actually done, and one of the most fun!”

Bawendi said he was in bed asleep when the Nobel Committee for Chemistry called to inform of the honor. “Don’t be sorry,” he said of the interruption. “Thank you so much.” Bawendi declared himself “very surprised, sleepy, shocked” and “very honored.”

Different paths led the three scientists to their Nobel win. Bawendi, born in Paris in 1961, spent his early childhood in France and Tunisia before emigrating with his family to the United States. He received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in 1982 and a PhD from University of Chicago in 1988. He joined the faculty at MIT in 1990, becoming a full professor in 1996. “He is a very methodical scientist,” said Advincula, who listened to Bawendi speak at a conference almost a decade ago. “He was quite passionate in describing where the science was going.”

Brus was born in Cleveland in 1943. He studied electronic structure as a student and earned a bachelor’s degree from Rice University in 1965 and a PhD from Columbia University in 1969. After his doctoral program, he served at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory until 1973, when he left to join AT&T Bell Laboratories, where he did the work that would lead to his early discoveries in nanotechnology.

Ekimov was born in the former Soviet Union in 1945 and graduated from the Faculty of Physics at Leningrad State University in 1967. He made some of his key discoveries while at Vavilov State Optical Institute in St. Petersburg, a research institute that specializes in optics. He has been living in the United States for more than 20 years.

It is not clear what caused the leak of the Nobel laureate names, which is normally a tightly guarded secret. Hans Ellegren, secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, said “there was a press release sent out for unknown reasons” that is under investigation. “We deeply regret what happened,” he said.

While they are rare, Nobel leaks are not unprecedented. In 2018, a Swedish newspaper reported that the husband of a member of the Royal Swedish Academy had repeatedly violated the secrecy rule by leaking the names of winners including Bob Dylan, the winner of the 2016 prize in literature. The Nobel Prize, which includes an award of about $1 million, is given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

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Frances Stead Sellers contributed to this report.