A new dawn in plastic electronics
24 February 2011
Researchers at The University of Queensland, Australia, have discovered how to create an array of plastics with metallic or superconducting properties. This discovery comes from experiments by PhD graduate Dr. Stephenson, Professor Meredith, Associate Professor Powell, and Associate Professor Micolich from the University of New South Wales.
The technique involves placing a very thin layer of metal onto a plastic sheet and mixing it into the polymer surface with an ion beam. Strong, flexible and conductive plastic film is the end result.
Ion beam techniques are widely used in the microelectronics industry, but attempts to adapt this process to plastic films have been made since the 1980s with only limited success until now.
"What the team has been able to do here is use an ion beam to tune the properties of a plastic film so that it conducts electricity like the metals used in the electrical wires themselves, and even to act as a superconductor and pass electric current without resistance if cooled to low enough temperatures," said Professor Meredith.
To demonstrate a potential application for the material, the team produced electrical resistance thermometers. Tested against an industry standard platinum resistance thermometer, it had comparable or even superior accuracy.
"This material is so interesting because we can take all the desirable aspects of polymers – such as mechanical flexibility, robustness and low cost – and add good electrical conductivity, something not normally associated with plastics," commented Dr. Micolich.
Dr. Stephenson said that the most exciting part about the discovery is how precisely the film's ability to conduct or resist the flow of electrical current can be tuned; opening up a broad potential for useful applications. "In theory, we can make plastics that conduct no electricity at all or as well as metals do – and everything in between,” he said.
As well as being inexpensive, flexible and easy to produce, these new materials are vastly more tolerant of exposure to oxygen compared to standard semiconducting polymers.
Combined, these advantages may give the new material a bright future in the development of plastic electronics applications.
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