LG Electronics said Tuesday that the company would unveil new LCD televisions that use quantum dot technology at the International Consumers Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month.

South Korea’s second largest consumer electronics company will showcase two sets of 55 and 65-inch quantum dot-based ultrahigh-definition LCD TVs featuring higher color reproduction capacity.

The TVs are embedded with films of quantum dot nanocrystals, which are placed in front of LCD backlights, to boost the color gamut by 30 percent compared with traditional LCD TVs, the company said.

The technology concept of quantum dot-based LCD TVs is similar to that of LED TVs. LED TVs are basically LCD TVs that use LED backlights, which replaced fluorescents, to raise their energy efficiency and resolution.

“LG Electronics improved the existing LCD TVs, especially in terms of color reproduction, by using the quantum dot materials,” LG Electronics spokesperson Song Geun-young said.

The company was able to produce its environmentally-friendly quantum-dot TVs without using toxic cadmium materials.

LG Electronics declined to identify its main suppliers of quantum dot materials, but said it had a lot of “options” to secure them. Dow Chemical has been mentioned as LG’s quantum dot supplier by Reuters.

“We will not only satisfy growing consumer needs for high-quality color resolution with OLED TVs, but also with ultra HD TVs using quantum dots,” In-Kyu Lee, head and senior vice president of LG Electronics’ TV division, said in a press release.

The company said it would also showcase its third-generation OLED TVs along with quantum dot-based LCD TVs at the International CES next month.

OLED TVs, which do not have backlights, can generate light on their own, which theoretically can improve their efficiency. However, they are difficult to make, albeit with better resolution and contrast, and LG has been globally known for leading the production of next-generation OLED TVs.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)