E-Mail IMAGE: Martin Gruebele, right, and graduate student Huy Nguyen demonstrate that economical carbon-based quantum dots emit enough light when excited to eventually replace the expensive and toxic metal quantum dots used... view more Credit: Photo by L. Brian Stauffer CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Tiny fluorescent semiconductor dots, called quantum dots, are useful in a variety of health and electronic technologies but are made of toxic, expensive metals. Nontoxic and economic carbon-based dots are easy to produce, but they emit less light. A new study that uses ultrafast nanometric imaging found good and bad emitters among populations of carbon dots. This observation suggests that by selecting only super-emitters, carbon nanodots can be purified to replace toxic metal quantum dots in many applications, the researchers said.