Scientists Discover Material That Can Be Made Like a Plastic But Conducts Like a Metal (phys.org) 18
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: Scientists with the University of Chicago have discovered a way to create a material that can be made like a plastic, but conducts electricity more like a metal. The research, published Oct. 26 in Nature, shows how to make a kind of material in which the molecular fragments are jumbled and disordered, but can still conduct electricity extremely well. "In principle, this opens up the design of a whole new class of materials that conduct electricity, are easy to shape, and are very robust in everyday conditions," said John Anderson, an associate professor of chemistry at the University of Chicago and the senior author on the study. "Essentially, it suggests new possibilities for an extremely important technological group of materials," said Jiaze Xie (Ph.D. '22, now at Princeton), the first author on the paper.
[...] Xie began experimenting with some materials discovered years ago, but largely ignored. He strung nickel atoms like pearls into a string of of molecular beads made of carbon and sulfur, and began testing. To the scientists' astonishment, the material easily and strongly conducted electricity. What's more, it was very stable. "We heated it, chilled it, exposed it to air and humidity, and even dripped acid and base on it, and nothing happened," said Xie. That is enormously helpful for a device that has to function in the real world. But to the scientists, the most striking thing was that the molecular structure of the material was disordered. "From a fundamental picture, that should not be able to be a metal," said Anderson. "There isn't a solid theory to explain this."
Xie, Anderson, and their lab worked with other scientists around the university to try to understand how the material can conduct electricity. After tests, simulations, and theoretical work, they think that the material forms layers, like sheets in a lasagna. Even if the sheets rotate sideways, no longer forming a neat lasagna stack, electrons can still move horizontally or vertically -- as long as the pieces touch. The end result is unprecedented for a conductive material. "It's almost like conductive Play-Doh -- you can smush it into place and it conducts electricity," Anderson said. The scientists are excited because the discovery suggests a fundamentally new design principle for electronics technology. Conductors are so important that virtually any new development opens up new lines for technology, they explained. The report says the new material "can be made at room temperatures" and "can also be used where the need for a device or pieces of the device to withstand heat, acid or alkalinity, or humidity has previously limited engineers' options to develop new technology."
Xie added: "We think we can make it 2D or 3D, make it porous, or even introduce other functions by adding different linkers or nodes."
[...] Xie began experimenting with some materials discovered years ago, but largely ignored. He strung nickel atoms like pearls into a string of of molecular beads made of carbon and sulfur, and began testing. To the scientists' astonishment, the material easily and strongly conducted electricity. What's more, it was very stable. "We heated it, chilled it, exposed it to air and humidity, and even dripped acid and base on it, and nothing happened," said Xie. That is enormously helpful for a device that has to function in the real world. But to the scientists, the most striking thing was that the molecular structure of the material was disordered. "From a fundamental picture, that should not be able to be a metal," said Anderson. "There isn't a solid theory to explain this."
Xie, Anderson, and their lab worked with other scientists around the university to try to understand how the material can conduct electricity. After tests, simulations, and theoretical work, they think that the material forms layers, like sheets in a lasagna. Even if the sheets rotate sideways, no longer forming a neat lasagna stack, electrons can still move horizontally or vertically -- as long as the pieces touch. The end result is unprecedented for a conductive material. "It's almost like conductive Play-Doh -- you can smush it into place and it conducts electricity," Anderson said. The scientists are excited because the discovery suggests a fundamentally new design principle for electronics technology. Conductors are so important that virtually any new development opens up new lines for technology, they explained. The report says the new material "can be made at room temperatures" and "can also be used where the need for a device or pieces of the device to withstand heat, acid or alkalinity, or humidity has previously limited engineers' options to develop new technology."
Xie added: "We think we can make it 2D or 3D, make it porous, or even introduce other functions by adding different linkers or nodes."
i hope they test it for (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
It's essentially a plastic, HF antennas need strength. Just stick to steel core, copper strand wire.
Conductive plastics are interesting for their low temperature processing mostly. Parts of organic transistors, some types of PV etc.
Re: (Score:2)
It's not a great conductor, but it does conduct. (Score:4, Informative)
The interesting part is figuring out why it conducts.
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But does it play well with others? (Score:2)
CANBUS is high on the list to contour form in-place if it can live between insulators.
That’s the last advantage wire harness persists over CANBUS.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:1)
I really don't want to deal with etching PCBs with acids and ordering PCBs from e.g. JLCPCB is easy and reasonably cheap
While i see where you coming from, i don't see how you'd mount any components on a 3D printed plastic easier than on a fiber PCB.
That, and people have been etching PCB's at home for a minimal investment and with minimal equipment for about a century now, so if your need is 'a lot of use' it sounds like a minor inconvenience since ever the laser printer arrived in 1985. Or pay up a whopping $25 and have the jlcpcb items shipped to your doorstep within 3 day. Or have a cheap CNC router next to your printer.
I
Re: (Score:2)
Great, Another forever plastic? (Score:2)
We do need to test this for toxicity and biodegradability before launching this into the open market. We had much fanfare in the past with things like buckyballs and later found that they were toxic to amphibians and other life forms thus limiting the usability somewhat. Whenever you discover/manufacture something that is not naturally found in nature it's important to know what you are doing and what effects this may have on the biological side of things.
On the other hand it could be used for so many thi
BOGUS (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Contributions J.X. synthesized samples and performed their physical characterization. S.E. conducted band structure calculations. J-N.B. performed the molecular calculations. A.S.F performed and refined the structural determination. B.C. performed electrical measurements and gold depositions. T.M. and G.L.G. carried out the room-temperature Seebeck and four-probe conductivity measurements. N.Z. and R.I. collected Raman and specular reflectance IR spectra, respectively. X.S. performed the Kramers–Kronig analysis. H.C. measured variable-temperature Seebeck coefficients. Z.C. and K.W.C. collected and analysed the PDF data. J.X. and J.S.A. conceived and wrote the manuscript. B.C., S.N.P., D.V.T., J.P. and D.A.M interpreted the data and wrote the manuscript.
Have you ever done lab research?
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Sigh - a typical trend by so called "scientists" get 20+ [possibly twits] to sign off on the 'paper' to get it validated. If it requires more than about 5 people, it is both bogus and garbage.
And you are a typical armchair scientist [probably a twit] who doesn't even read the 'paper' before discrediting it. There was quite a lot analysis of this substance and it was done with specialized equipment at a number of labs.
Contributions J.X. synthesized samples and performed their physical characterization. S.E. conducted band structure calculations. J-N.B. performed the molecular calculations. A.S.F performed and refined the structural determination. B.C. performed electrical measurements and gold depositions. T.M. and G.L.G. carried out the room-temperature Seebeck and four-probe conductivity measurements. N.Z. and R.I. collected Raman and specular reflectance IR spectra, respectively. X.S. performed the Kramersâ"Kronig analysis. H.C. measured variable-temperature Seebeck coefficients. Z.C. and K.W.C. collected and analysed the PDF data. J.X. and J.S.A. conceived and wrote the manuscript. B.C., S.N.P., D.V.T., J.P. and D.A.M interpreted the data and wrote the manuscript.
Play Doh! (Score:2)
Finally, something better than Play Doh for squishy circuits
Bimbo boxes (Score:2)
Science Doom (Score:2)
Science person 1: "Hey, let's create a material that we can't destroy, that won't perish, and then let's make all our throwaway toys from this stuff!".
Science person 2: "Great idea! I mean, what could possibly go wrong, right?"
Interesting (Score:1)