Nanosuspension Technology is an innovative field that has an important role to play in many applications, including construction, displays, lighting, and pharmaceuticals. Light Polymers’ proprietary lyotropic materials have amphiphilic properties – they have both hydrophobic and hydrophilic parts in the molecule. These amphiphilic materials can be used as efficient viscosity modifiers and create suspensions without surfactants. That means Light Polymers’ proprietary materials can be used as a suspension matrix for objects of various sizes and shapes from objects on the nanoscale (quantum dots, nanowires, functional nanoparticles) to macroscopic objects like phosphors and concrete particles.
In regular remote phosphor film manufacturing, the technology typically used is a two-component resin mixed with phosphor in a suspension. This suspension mixture has limited shelf-life and needs to be used within a short period of time due to particle sagging in the suspension. The tendency of the heavy phosphor particles to sag in the process of dispensing, casting and curing leads to low yields in the final product, particle agglomeration and optical inefficiencies. All of these issues are eliminated when using Light Polymers’ breakthrough lyotropic materials for amphiphilic matrix suspensions. These breakthrough materials make it possible to keep the suspension state for longer periods of time, reducing particle sagging, particle agglomeration, and improving the whole production process.
Another trend in the display industry is the use of Quantum Dots suspended in silicone to widen the display’s color gamut, creating vibrant reds and greens. Light Polymers’ proprietary lyotropic materials have a tunable refractive index, which can improve the light extraction efficiency in such Quantum Dot applications through index-matching. In addition, these unique amphiphilic materials can be used to align non-spherical nano-objects, such as Quantum Nanorods and Nanowires to create novel products such as polarizing downconversion films and conductive polarizers. Light Polymers’ suspension materials are water-based and can be easily coated on flat or curved surfaces.
Light Polymers’ nanosuspension materials are stable, and the spectra emitted will not degrade over time. These unique properties have enabled the creation of Light Polymers’ Crystallin® brand of lighting products. With precise control over the refractive index, Light Polymers has developed LED lighting products that allow higher downconversion efficiency – meaning they have lower power usage compared to traditional LED products while also creating less waste heat. One advantage of lyotropic materials is precise control of the production process, where a thick coated layer dries to a thin film of compacted materials, considerably increasing the density of the suspended particles without agglomeration. This manufacturing process is easy to scale, leading to substantial economic efficiencies in manufacturing Crystallin lights compared to traditional LED fixtures.
The Crystallin® Gold97 Task Light and Orange Study Light are now available for purchase through Amazon. Visit www.crystallinlighting.com for more details.
