Acts Like a Plastic But Conducts Like Metal

Researchers at the University of Chicago have found a means to produce a material that resembles plastic yet conducts electricity more like a metal.

Like a metal?

The research, released on Oct. 26 in Nature, shows how to produce a sort of material wherein the molecular fragments are shuffled and disordered but can still conduct electricity exceptionally well.

This breaks all of the rules we know regarding conductivity. To a researcher, it is like seeing a car driving on water at 70 miles per hour. The discovery could also be beneficial; if you want to invent something innovative, the process frequently begins with discovering entirely new material.

” In principle, this opens the design of an entirely new class of materials that conduct electricity, are very easy to shape, and are extremely robust in day-to-day conditions,” stated John Anderson, an associate professor of chemistry at the University of Chicago and the senior author on the research study. “Essentially, it proposes new possibilities for an extremely crucial technological group of materials,” said Jiaze Xie (Ph.D. 22, currently at Princeton), the first author on the paper.

‘ There isn’t a strong theory to explain this’

Conductive materials are important if you are making any type of electronic device, whether it be an iPhone, a solar panel, or a television. Without a doubt, the oldest and biggest team of conductors is the metals: copper, gold, and aluminum. Then, approximately 50 years ago, researchers could create conductors constructed of organic materials using a chemical treatment called “doping,” which sprinkles different atoms or electrons through the material. This is favorable since these materials are more flexible and easier to process than conventional metals. However, the problem is that they need to be more stable; they can lose their conductivity if subjected to moisture or if the temperature gets too high.

Fundamentally, both of these organic and conventional metallic conductors share a typical trait. They are composed of straight, tightly packed rows of atoms or molecules. This means that electrons can easily flow through the material, similar to cars on a freeway. Scientists believed a material had to have these straight, orderly rows to conduct electricity effectively.

Xie started experimenting with some materials discovered years earlier, however greatly overlooked. He strung nickel atoms like pearls into a string of molecular beads made of carbon and sulfur and started testing.

To the researchers’ awe, the material easily and strongly conducted electricity. What is even more, it was extremely stable. “We heated it, cooled it, exposed it to air and humidity, and even dripped acid and base on it, and absolutely nothing happened,” stated Xie. That is immensely helpful for a device that has to perform in real life.

However, to the researchers, the most striking thing was that the material’s molecular structure was disordered. “From a fundamental picture, that need not be capable of being a metal,” stated Anderson. “There is not a solid theory to explain this.”

New material properties

Xie, Anderson, and their lab collaborated with other university researchers to understand how the material can conduct electricity. Following tests, simulations, and theoretical work, they believe that the material forms layers, like sheets in a lasagna. Even if the sheets rotate sideways, no longer making a neat lasagna stack, electrons can still move horizontally or vertically– as long as the pieces touch.

The final result is unprecedented for a conductive material. “It is almost like conductive Play-Doh– you can mold it into place, and it conducts electricity,” Anderson said.

The researchers are delighted since the discovery suggests a basically new design principle for electronics technology. They explained that conductors are so essential that practically any new development opens new lines for technology.

Among the material’s attractive characteristics are new options for processing. For example, metals generally need to be melted to be made into the correct shape for a chip or device, which restricts what you can produce with them since other components of the device need to endure the heat needed to process these materials.

The new material has no such restriction since it can be made at room temperature. It can likewise be utilized where the need for a device or device pieces to endure heat, acid or alkalinity, or humidity has formerly restricted engineers’ options to develop new technology.

The group likewise explores the different forms and functions the material may make. “We believe we can make it 2-D or 3-D, make it porous, or even introduce other functions by including different linkers or nodes,” said Xie.

Read the original article on Science Daily.

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