Tandon researchers advance eco-friendly infrared detectors

Tandon researchers found that semiconducting material may offer a safer and cheaper alternative to the toxic heavy-metal compounds typically used in infrared detectors because of its capacity for near to short-wave infrared detection. IR tracks movements through body heat and is commonly used for night cameras and health screenings.

The engineering school’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering pushed for silver selenide as an alternative to traditional sensors — often built with toxic compounds — due to its sustainable and adaptable properties. When combined with selenium, an element known for its abundance and conductive properties, a promising versatile alternative for future IR technologies can be discovered.

Shlok Paul, a Tandon doctoral student and a lead author of the study, told WSN that the research team worked on developing quantum dots often used in modern televisions to emit light to transfer that into absorbing IR light instead. They used a solution-phase ligand exchange, which involves changing insulating liquid to make the nanoparticles more conducive to hold onto light — and having experimented with silver selenide for three years, this most recent work was a breakthrough for them.

“It’s been very hard to use it as a detector, because it’s a very fragile material,” Paul said. “One of the benefits of doing the solution-phase ligand exchange is that we somehow made it a little more robust. The most important thing is that we were able to make them easily.”

Letian Li, another lead author, added that the solution-phase ligand exchange is a cost-efficient solution when material quantity increases. Researchers were also able to achieve very high detectivity and responsiveness, clear marks of key metrics for strong IR performance. 

While the findings were promising, the authors recognized that there’s much more research to be done. Zheng Li, another lead author, told WSN that their long-term aim is to apply their approach to mid-wave IR detection, which includes the night vision sensors used on today’s self-driving cars.

“I think the biggest advantage of our material is that it’s cheap and it’s not toxic,” Li said in an interview. “We might definitely be able to improve the performance of the material in the future, but for now, it’s still hard to beat mercury and sulfide-based methods.”

Contact Yitao Liu at news@nyunews.com.

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Tandon researchers found that semiconducting material may offer a safer and cheaper alternative to the toxic heavy-metal compounds typically used in infrared detectors because of its capacity for near to short-wave infrared detection. IR tracks movements through body heat and is commonly used for night cameras and health screenings. The engineering school’s Department of Chemical…