2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded for quantum dots, which revolutionized color TVs and show promise against cancer

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Wednesday awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Moungi Bawendi, Louis E. Brus and Alexey Ekimov, “for the discovery and development of quantum dots. These tiny particles have unique properties and now spread their light from television screens and LED lamps. They catalyse chemical reactions and their clear light can illuminate tumor tissue for a surgeon.”

Quantum dots are so tiny that the astonishing laws governing the world of the infinitely small — quantum mechanics — are manifested in them. Quantum dots are nanocrystals, a few millionths of a millimeter in size, in which electrons are confined. These electron islands exhibit interesting properties, useful in a multitude of fields, from television screens to medicine. It is an emerging field in the diagnosis and experimental treatment of cancer.

Russian physicist Alexey Ekimov first observed quantum dots in crystals in 1981. These are structures that normally have a few thousand atoms, so few in number that they still exhibit the strange behaviors associated with single atoms. When stimulated by light or electricity, the electrons jump to a higher energy level and, upon returning to their normal state, produce a glow with individual protons. The color of that light depends on the size, composition and shape of the nanocrystal, as detailed in an article in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. The American chemist Louis E. Brus of Columbia University and his French colleague Moungi Bawendi of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology learned to master the properties of quantum dots. The Dutch company Philips and the Japanese company Sony pioneered the use of this technology to improve the color of their screens a decade ago.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been surrounded by confusion since early Wednesday, after the Swedish Academy mistakenly announced the award to Bawendi, Brus and Ekimov ahead of time. The institution sent a statement to the Swedish press hours before officially making the decision. But Johan Aqvist, chair of the academy’s Nobel committee for chemistry, told Reuters: “It is a mistake by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Our meeting starts at 0930 CET (0730 GMT) so no decision has been made yet. The winners have not been selected.” The prize is worth 11 million Swedish crowns ($990,019 or €950,000).

Last year, the Swedish Academy awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Denmark’s Morten Meldal and Americans Carolyn Bertozzi and Barry Sharpless, the fathers of click chemistry and bioorthogonal reactions, two revolutionary tools for producing drugs and new materials.

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