Quantum Dotting the 'i' of Inquiry: A Guided Inquiry Approach to Teaching Nanotechnology

摘要

When illuminating four "mystery" vials of nanopar-tilcle solution with a 405-nm light emitting diode(LED), four distinct colors related to the peakwavelength of fluorescent emission can be observed.' Thisphenomenon perplexes high school physics students andleads to the subsequent exploratory question, "Why are thefour vials emitting a different color light if they all containthe same material and are illuminated with the same lightsource?" That question gives students the opportunity to col-lect and analyze data, which leads to the development of theinherent scientific concept that the color of the emitted lightdepends on the size of the material (quantum dot) suspendedin solution.