224: Quantum Dots Quantumania 

First off, i enjoy this channel and TBD. I've heard that some of my comments may come across overly snarky, and that's not really my intent. Anyhow, in reference to the $0.28/w vs quantumdots (or any other up and coming more expensive but higher efficiency tech), i see one area where higher efficiency with higher net cost (per watt) will still have decent uptake: places, like NYC, where available surface area is at a premium, and energy costs are already high/high-ish. But, as always with tech, as you always say, it's the right tool for the right job. And its not always the high tech that is needer. For example, i live in a double wide (~1550 ft^2) in Central Texas. We have resistive heating and regular A/C. Switching to a heat pump could likely save me ~$600 a year. But, spending about half as much on "simply" insulating my home (Adding 2"insulated zip system to all exterior walls and floors) would save about the same, and make my future (hopefully) solar and battery requirements much lower. But, swapping HVAC is MUCH easier,lol. Horses for courses, but its not always an easy choice!

Microplastics: We're bad, and we're everywhere! Quantum dots: Hold my beer!

With the first part about Heatpumps vs district heating. I dont think it is Vs. One of the expensive parts of district hearing is each unit has its own controller so everyone can adjust their own heat. In cold climates, just getting over 40°F at all times is requirement to protect your water system. And a heat pump keeping your house at 67° from an original 40° inside temp is way more efficienct then going from 20° inside temp. Let alone trying to keep out -8°F outside temp. So using district hearing as a base load heat would allow a larger variety of heat pumps that are cheaper to be available and may remove the need for hight rise and larger buildings to need any gas lines at all. Making the entire building cheaper and safer overall.

hope i'm not too late to the party but I got my PhD on exactly this subject (quantum dot solar). The thing that sold me on the idea was quantum dot inks and the promise of roll-to-roll processing Think about how fast we can print newspapers or leaflets, but they'd be solar cells instead. The flexible PV cell Matt was talking about is exactly where that's going. One of the papers I cited in my literature review estimated about 4 cents per watt. Most of my work was on ligands and trying to build exactly that road analogy Matt was talking about. Our lab tried to use "prefab highways" by adding carbon nanotubes and graphene, I tried to grow mine using organic ligands that polymerized together in the solid state, connecting adjacent dots together. We did most of the processing under ambient conditions which lowered the efficiency but was a better test of durability and had lower cost.

This is more for Matt's battery video coming up but: What I want to see is a center lot in a residential neighborhood turned into a dedicated energy storage center. Something that can turn the a few blocks of residential into a bit of a micro grid. That way the whole neighborhood can get solar and focus in electric for heat and cooking and provide emergency power as an option. I'm thinking like having 2 power panels in people's homes here. A normal 100amp service and then a optional 20/40amp emergency service that people can pay for for direct access to the battery system at all times. Think people with special medical needs kind of thing. The battery center's main goal would be a local place to be a energy buffer to overall lower the cost of electricity for the entire neighborhood. Reducing strain on the main grid acting like an expansion tank. And if it acts as a distributer for electricity then it can become its own net metering system for the local grid even if the state doesn't have one.

Enjoy the trip!

I think the greenhouse translucent panel has some really interesting applications. I'm sure its price restrictive but if you could pair it with a battery to power a small pump, fan, and heater and it could water your plans for you and precisely control the temperature, humidity in the greenhouse year for year round production. Would love to see something like that for our backyard.

interestingly, 2023 Nobel prize in chemistry was awarded to scientists who were involved in the discovery and further development of quantum dots sometimes referred to as semiconductor nanoparticles

One interesting application I can think about is using QDots to reflect near infrared and UV light off of buildings and windows, thus helping them to stay cooler and reducing the load of an AC and increasing a smidge that albido effect.

Theoretically, a QD layer could be applied to an existing panel to 'corral' the light into bands which favour the existing PV capture chemistry. Effectively translating solar bandwidth to improve existing technology. Though something tells me, if this were easy, we'd be seeing them by now.

Do a video on that Massachusetts district heating project, please and thank you

Sean I'm visiting NY right now and it's like someone put a swamp in a volcano

Ya know, every time Matt says "I don't see that happening." I can hear an engineer somewhere responding, "hold my beer."

Plastics are in everything in our lives, including our bodies ;-). So if we head down the quantum dot road, by inference we could become glowing beings as we start making quantum dots on the stove.

FFS. They are not artificial atoms. They are molecules or bunches of molecules.