Bawendi, Brus, Ekimov Win Nobel Prize 2023 in Chemistry

The Royal Swedish Academy of Science, Stockholm, on October 4, 2023, announced the names of the winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Moungi G.Bawendi,Louis Brus and Alexei I. Ekimov have been honoured for their “discovery and synthesis of Quantum dots”. They will share a prize of 11 million Swedish kroner (US$1 million).

The prize will be conferred to them on December 10, 2023 in Stockholm, Sweden. 

About the Nobel Prize winners

• Alexei Ivanovich Ekimov is a Russian scientist based in the United States of America. He was the Chief Scientist at an American company Nanocrystals Technology Inc. He is credited with first discovering quantum dots in the 1980s.
• Moungi Gabriel Bawendi is a French-American scientist . He is a Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA. He invented a method for making custom-made quantum dots which opened up its  more commercial and scientific uses.
• Louis E. Brus is an American scientist. He is currently a Professor at Columbia University, New York, USA. He developed a method for developing crystals floating in fluid.

What are Quantum Dots?

A quantum dot is a crystal that often consists of just a few thousand atoms. Quantum dots are extremely tiny - just a few millionths of a millimetre. They are an artificially-created collection of semiconducting nanoparticles that glow blue, red or green when exposed to light.

Their exact size determines the colour of light they emit when given energy. The smallest quantum dots emit higher energy waves and produce blue light, and biggest dots release lower energy waves creating red light, with the middle sizes creating the colours in between.

Use of Quantum Dots 

Quantum dots now illuminate computer monitors and television screens based on QLED (Quantum Dot Light Emitting Diode) technology. They also add nuance to the light of some LED lamps, and biochemists and doctors use them to map biological tissue.

According to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences"For a long time nobody thought you could make such small particles, but the winners this year managed to do just that".

"Researchers believe that in the future they could contribute to flexible electronics, tiny sensors, thinner solar cells and encrypted quantum communication - so we have just started exploring the potential of these tiny particles," it added.

Nobel Prize 

The Nobel Prize was founded in the memory of Alfred Nobel, who, in his will, asked to set up a foundation to give prizes to those persons or institutions who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to "humankind". The Nobel Foundation was set up in 1900, and the first prize was given in 1901.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 

• The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded 116 times to 195 persons Prize laureates between 1901 and 2023. 
• The first person to get the Prize was Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff of Holland In 1901.
• In 2022, it was awarded to Carolyn R. Bertozzi of the United States of America, Morten Meldal of Denmark and Barry Sharpless of the United States of America.
• The Chemistry Nobel Prize has been awarded twice to two people. Frederick Sanger of England(1958,1980) and Barry Sharpless of the United States of America(2001,2022).

Indian born person to get the Prize 

• Indian born British and American citizen Venkatraman Ramakrishnan was awarded the Nobel prize for Chemistry in 2009.