Abstract
Herein, emerging applications of luminescent semiconductor nanocrystals are addressed, such as quantum dots and quantum rods as down-conversion materials used in liquid crystal displays (LCD). Their precisely tunable emission wavelengths and narrow emission bandwidths offer high color purity resulting in a wide color gamut with vivid colors for LCDs. Anisotropic materials, such as quantum rods, have the additional advantage of polarized emission, which can bring a significant improvement to the efficiency of LCD displays. The basic optical properties of these nanomaterials are considered, with a focus on quantum rods, and the challenges and progress in their assembly are discussed. Different techniques for quantum rod alignment are introduced such as shear-oriented, electric field and magnetic field assisted assembly, mechanical rubbing, stretching, and electrospinning. The photoalignment approach allows for an easy arrangement of quantum rods in-plane, and the implications of this method to patterning are considered. Different configurations of LCDs utilizing semiconductor quantum dots and quantum rods as down-conversion layers are also presented, and the potential applications that are enabled by the wide range of emerging materials are highlighted.