Nanoco Group plc (AIM: NANO), a world leader in the development and manufacture of cadmium-free quantum dots and other nanomaterials, announces that it has successfully produced a 1kg batch of green cadmium-free quantum dots for a major Japanese corporation, triggering a US$2 million payment to Nanoco.

Nanoco supplied a 1kg batch of red quantum dots to the same Japanese corporation last year, also attracting a US$2 million payment. The production of the green dots marks another major technical achievement by Nanoco because green dots are significantly more challenging than red ones due to their smaller size.

The green quantum dots were produced at Nanoco's production facility in Runcorn, Cheshire.

The Japanese corporation is planning on developing a range of LED applications that incorporate Nanoco's red and green quantum dots including the backlighting of LCD displays and LED-based general lighting.

The value of using quantum dot LEDs in LCD TV backlighting is much improved colour performance. For general lighting applications Nanoco's quantum dots allow lighting manufacturers to tune the shade of white light produced giving next generation white LED lights the warm feeling of traditional incandescent lights.

Michael Edelman, Nanoco's Chief Executive Officer, said: "We are delighted to have produced a 1kg batch of green quantum dots to the specification of this major Japanese customer. It is the first time that we have produced green quantum dots on this scale, marking a particular technical achievement as green dots are just a few nanometers in diameter - about half the size of red ones. We now look to forward to the customer progressing to the launch of quantum dot LEDs, and to our on-going supply of quantum dots."