TCL's advertisement is displayed prominently at the north gate of Messe Berlin, the main venue for IFA 2024, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Nam Hyun-woo

Chinese home appliance giant TCL is facing scrutiny over the quality of its quantum dot (QD) TVs, as recent tests by global certification agencies revealed that three of the company's QD LED TV models lack key materials essential for producing genuine QD panels.

According to a report from Korean media outlet ETNews, global certification agencies SGS and Intertek recently tested TCL's three QD TVs but failed to detect indium and cadmium in their sheets and diffuser plates.

Either indium or cadmium is an essential material for QDs, which are nano-sized crystals made from semiconductor materials that enhance picture quality while improving overall energy efficiency.

The TVs that showed no trace of indium or cadmium were the C755 QD-Mini LED 4K TV, the C655 4K QLED TV and the C655 PRO 4K FALD QLED TV. The tests' detection thresholds required at least 2 milligrams of indium or 0.5mg of cadmium per kilogram for measurement.

The tests were commissioned by Korea's QD materials maker Hansol Chemical as part of its market research efforts to evaluate various TV sets.

TCL was quoted as saying that it is "manufacturing TV sets with QD films supplied by three companies" and "the amount of quantum dots (QD) in the film may vary depending on the supplier, but it is certain that cadmium is included."

TCL EUBG Chief Marketing Officer Stefan Streit presents the C765 Premium QD-Mini LED TV during the company's press conference at the IFA 2024 in Berlin, Thursday. Captured from TCL YouTube

TCL, China's largest TV maker, has been employing aggressive expansion strategies to increase its presence in the global home appliance market with a focus on cost efficiency. This has allowed the company to carve out market share from established TV giants like Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Sony.

The company is one of the main sponsors of the ongoing IFA 2024 consumer electronics exhibition in Germany, promoting its QD-Mini LED TVs as its flagship products.