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TEKNOKONVERGENS-Teknologikonvergens - grensesprengende forskning og radikal innovasjon

UVC LEDs based on nanowires-on-graphene

Alternative title: UVC LED basert på nanotråder og grafen.

Awarded: NOK 14.0 mill.

UVC light at a wavelength near 265 nm has the incredible ability to kill 99.9% of bacteria and viruses by disrupting their DNA. UVC light is therefore being increasingly applied to mainstream solutions, such as surface, air and water disinfection. Today, the easiest and cheapest way of producing UVC light is by using mercury-vapor lamps, which therefore dominate almost all the UVC light market. These UVC lamps, however, contain vaporized mercury, which produces UVC light when electricity is applied to the lamp. This vaporized mercury is very toxic to humans and therefore, since 2017 in accordance with the UN’s Minamata Convention, EU bans the use of mercury in most applications and a successor is desperately needed. Semiconductor LEDs can also generate light in the UVC region for disinfection, but with significantly reduced wall plug efficiencies of only 1-5%. The core technology of today’s UVC LEDs therefore needs to be significantly optimized, particularly the material properties and design of the LED and the way that it is manufactured. New disruptive innovation is therefore urgently needed, before UVC LEDs can make substantial gains in the billion-dollar lamp market and fully eliminate the UVC sector’s reliance on mercury. CrayoNano revolutionary new approach to produce UVC LEDs, based on nanowires-on-graphene, has the potential to eliminate the shortcomings of traditional thin-film-based UVC LED design and production. Nanowires grown on graphene completely circumvents the problems of lattice mismatch and we can thus grow high quality crystalline (near dislocation-free) AlGaN nanowires. In our UVC LED design, the graphene is also used as an in-built transparent electrode. This will offer a breakthrough in the making of cost-efficient UVC LEDs and allow disinfection and sterilization treatments on a much larger scale in a few years time.

UVC light at a wavelength near 265 nm has the incredible ability to kill 99.9% of bacteria and viruses by disrupting their DNA. UVC light is therefore being increasingly applied to mainstream solutions, such as surface, air and water disinfection. Today, the easiest and cheapest way of producing UVC light is by using mercury-vapor lamps, which therefore dominate almost all the UVC light market. These UVC lamps, however, contain vaporized mercury, which produces UVC light when electricity is applied to the lamp. This vaporized mercury is very toxic to humans and therefore, since 2017 in accordance with the UN’s Minamata Convention, EU bans the use of mercury in most applications and a successor is desperately needed. Semiconductor LEDs can also generate light in the UVC region for disinfection, but with significantly reduced wall plug efficiencies of only 1-5%. The core technology of today’s UVC LEDs therefore needs to be significantly optimized, particularly the material properties and design of the LED and the way that it is manufactured. New disruptive innovation is therefore urgently needed, before UVC LEDs can make substantial gains in the billion-dollar lamp market and fully eliminate the UVC sector’s reliance on mercury. CrayoNano revolutionary new approach to produce UVC LEDs, based on nanowires-on-graphene, has the potential to eliminate the shortcomings of traditional thin-film-based UVC LED design and production. Nanowires grown on graphene completely circumvents the problems of lattice mismatch and we can thus grow high quality crystalline (near dislocation-free) AlGaN nanowires. In our UVC LED design, the graphene is also used as an in-built transparent electrode. This will offer a breakthrough in the making of cost-efficient UVC LEDs and allow disinfection and sterilization treatments on a much larger scale in a few years time.

Funding scheme:

TEKNOKONVERGENS-Teknologikonvergens - grensesprengende forskning og radikal innovasjon

Funding Sources