The smartest dope in the room

There are many roadblocks that can arise on the roadway to scientific discovery. Money always seems to be a big factor. When the well runs dry, so does access to the lab. But besides the almighty dollar, the other major obstacle faced by researchers trying to make a name for themselves is time.

Although someone might get lucky once in a while and stumble on a discovery immediately, most researchers understand that they are in it for the long haul. Some work for decades before they make the breakthrough that they have been pursuing since they first applied for their doctorate. And this isn’t at all the fault of the researcher, especially if they are not equipped with the right tools or materials to get the job done. Often, it is up to the researchers themselves to develop the experimental tools they need before work can begin in earnest.

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That is what happened in the case of North Carolina State University researchers who were exploring the best way to synthesize perovskite quantum dots through doping, a process in which impurities are introduced into the dots to modify their electrical properties. In light of the significant time commitment that would be required to perform manual tests to create the highest quality dots, the researchers opted instead to automate the process by creating a system to do it for them.

Dubbed “SmartDope,” the system uses a continuous flow reactor that uses a miniscule amount of chemicals to conduct quantum dot synthesis experiments rapidly as the precursors flow through the system and react with each other. For each experiment, SmartDope manipulates a suite of variables, such as the ratio of each precursor material, the temperature at which it mixes those precursors, and the amount of reaction time given whenever new precursors are added. SmartDope also automatically characterizes the optical properties of the quantum dots produced by each experiment as they leave the flow reactor.

In the end, what originally was estimated to be a 10-year commitment took a mere day to complete, not only saving the researchers a decade of study but also setting a record in the process. SmartDope was able to synthesize quantum dots capable of producing a quantum yield of 158%, meaning they emitted 1.58 photons for every photon absorbed. This shattered the previous record of 130%. Considering how much free time SmartDope freed up, the researchers hope that others toiling away in the lab will follow their example and let the smart dope do all of the hard work for them.

The research was published in Advanced Energy Materials (www.doi.org/10.1002/aenm.202302303).