Zenyatta Adds Quantum Dots to its Product Development Pipeline

Zenyatta Ventures Ltd. (TSXV: ZEN, “Zenyatta” or the “Company”) today announced that it has added Graphene Quantum Dots (GQDs) and Carbon Quantum Dots (CQDs) to its product development pipeline, working with its research partners Prof. Eugenia Kumacheva from the University of Toronto and Prof. Aicheng Chen from the University of Guelph. Preliminary testwork by Dr. Kumacheva, Professor of Chemistry and a Canada Research Chair in Advanced Functional Materials, along with her research team, have confirmed the relative ease with which GQDs could be produced from graphite feed from the company’s unique Albany Graphite Deposit in Northern Ontario. “Importantly, the spectroscopic properties of the GQDs we produced were consistent from experiment to experiment,” said Prof. Kumacheva. Independently, the Chen Research Group at the University of Guelph has also successfully used Albany Graphite to produce CQDs in a consistent fashion. “Employing a simple method that has the potential to be scaled to industrial sized applications allows the conversion of Albany Graphite into highly fluorescent CQDs,” Prof. Chen said. “Analysis of these CQDs confirmed not only that they are relatively easy to produce, but also that they possess high uniformity which is a highly desirable feature of any nanomaterial.” A quantum dot gets its name because it is a tiny speck of matter so small that it is effectively concentrated into a single point making it zero-dimensional like an atom. They range from between 2 to 10 nanometers in diameter, which is equivalent to 50 to 1000 atoms and it is this small size that gives quantum dots their unique properties. One interesting and very useful property is their ability to glow a particular colour after being illuminated by light (e.g. ultraviolet light). The colour light that a quantum dot emits is directly related to its size; smaller dots glow blue, larger ones glow red. Intermediate –sized dots glow green and other colours. Quantum Dots have attracted much attention recently due to their high stability, good conductivity, superior thermal, mechanical and electrical properties, environmental friendliness, low toxicity and biocompatibility. GQDs and CQDs have many next generation applications including: Bio-imaging markers, fluorescent polymers, markers for anti-counterfeiting/brand protection and many others. Zenyatta and its research partners will continue this innovative product development work to potentially create value for shareholders through Intellectual Property (“IP”) protected inventions. Zenyatta also intends to work with other leading industrial partners to co-develop IP. One of the important goals of the Company is to become an IP incubator where it can participate in IP creation across multiple industries. Mr. Peter Wood, P.Eng, P.Geo., President and COO of Zenyatta, is the “Qualified Person” for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed, prepared and supervised the preparation of the technical information contained in this news release. For further information: Dr. Francis Dubé, Co-CEO & Head of Business Development and Technology Tel: +1 (289) 821-2820 Email: fdube@zenyatta.ca