Non-toxic nanocrystals emitting brightly

[Crtomir]

harmmany214: You are right. Se is toxic. But it's also a vitamin sold over-the-counter. Cd is not a vitamin sold over-the-counter. I suppose I'm saying that Se is far less toxic than Cd. But good point anyways.

[gosmellafish]

True!

But in this case, it doesn't depend on the nanocrystal size since the emission comes from the manganese dopants, not the ZnSe host nanocrystal.

[thappaditya]

@russels

Its not bcoz they r small and hence reflect ultraviolet light. But its their flouroscence involving the recombinations of exciton after being formed by UV light. The emitted light is in visible range, so u see the different light depending on the nanocrystal size..!!

[gurdonark]

Great video. As an Arkansas physics alumni, it's good to see such fun things going on at the university.

I suggest you license this Creative Commons, as it would be fun to remix it into other videos.

[russelsparadox]

wow... nanocrystals, eh? Meaning, basically, the crystals are too small to reflect light waves which are larger than ultraviolet light? Or what?

[Crtomir]

What.

No really, you're right. They are smaller than the wavelength of visible light. In fact, they're smaller than the wavelenght of UV light also. They're only 5 to 8 nanometers in diameter. That's why the colloidal solution is clear, but they still glow bright yellow when excited by UV or near-UV light.