New applications for graphite? Substitution of rare metals to touch screen technology
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The federación (shanghai, editor of junjio wong) news, zippa is one of the rarest metals on earth, but it is a key component of the universal electronic equipment. However, engineers have now demonstrated a replacement of graphite with graphite to produce equipment with identical electronic properties。
It has been learned that the thin membranes of the nitrous oxide (ito) are highly conductive and transparent to light and are therefore well suited to various display techniques, including lcd, old, electron ink and touch screens, and led lighting, coating and solar cells。
But the problem is that it's not very common. Although technically more abundant than substances such as gold and silver, the platinum is rarely present in the crust in elemental form, so it can only be extracted as a by-product of the mining of other metals (usually) ores。
As a result, scientists have been looking for more common alternatives. Previous work has found promising candidates in carbon nanopipes, nanolines or new glass polymers. In a new study, researchers at the university of london's mary queens college may have discovered a new alternative substance, and it is the most amazing material for all, graphite。
The graphite consists of a layer of carbon with only one atom thickness, displaying many useful electronic and optical properties, and of course it is important that carbon is one of the richest elements on earth. The above-mentioned research results are published in the advanced optical materials magazine。
It is understood that researchers are the first to use a technique known as metal organic chemical gas deposition to deposit a layer of graphite on a transparent base. The graphite is mixed with nitrate to increase its conductivity and then carved into a specific pattern with laser erosion to make it anode. The study team stated that this graphite-based old equipment performed as well as the old tin oxide equipment。
Although other studies have shown that graphite can be used as a substitute for thallium, the resulting equipment is less efficient and electrical than the original. The study group indicated that the key issue was that graphite was usually placed on a metal catalyst using different deposition methods and then moved to a transparent base, but that this additional step would introduce impurities that affect performance。
“as a result of the importance and scarcity of ito, attempts have been made on several occasions to replace it, but to date no material has been found to have similar performances in electronic or optical devices.” professor colin humphreys, co-author of the study, noted that “our paper is the first in the world to prove that graphite can replace ito in electronic/optic equipment. We have proven that graphite-oled has the same properties as ito-oled."
However, a number of puzzles remain to be resolved before this so-called magic material becomes the panacea that scientists want. Despite its scarcity, the graphite is still relatively cheap and the current bulk production costs are high. However, this economic pattern is changing as companies like paragraf develop production methods for large-scale production of graphene at lower cost。
