In a move that would make the Alchemists of King Arthur’s time green with envy, scientists have unraveled the formula for turning liquid cement into liquid metal.
This makes cement a semi-conductor and opens up its use in the profitable consumer electronics marketplace for thin films, protective coatings, and computer chips.
“This new material has lots of applications, including as thin-film resistors used in liquid-crystal displays, basically the flat panel computer monitor that you are probably reading this from at the moment,” said Chris Benmore, a physicist from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE)Argonne National Laboratory who worked with a team of scientists from Japan, Finland and Germany to take the “magic” out of the cement-to-metal transformation. Benmore and Shinji Kohara from Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute/SPring-8 led the research effort.
This change demonstrates a unique way to make metallic-glass material, which has positive attributes including better resistance to corrosion than traditional metal, less brittleness than traditional glass, conductivity, low energy loss in magnetic fields, and fluidity for ease of processing and molding. Previously, only metals have been able to transition to a metallic-glass form. Cement does this by a process called electron trapping, a phenomena only previously seen in ammonia solutions. Understanding how cement joined this exclusive club opens the possibility of turning other solid normally insulating materials into room-temperature semiconductors.
“This phenomenon of trapping electrons and turning liquid cement into liquid metal was found recently, but not explained in detail until now,” Benmore said. “Now that we know the conditions needed to create trapped electrons in materials we can develop and test other materials to find out if we can make them conduct electricity in this way.”
The Latest Bing News on:
Turning cement into metal
- Container Garden Ideas: These Displays are Inexpensive, Easy to Make & Simply Stunningon May 10, 2024 at 7:55 am
Transform your outdoor space with pretty container garden displays that bring blooming beauty to your yard all season!
- Why this gardener wants to turn your outside space into a ‘sponge’on May 6, 2024 at 5:39 am
Tom Massey has designed his Chelsea Flower Show plot to include features that reduce water pollution and wants others to follow suit ...
- Mining Metal: Belore, Givre, Glassing, Hekseblad, La Torture Des Ténèbres, Love Sex Machine, Nuclear Tomb, and Tomb Portalon April 29, 2024 at 10:10 am
Highlighting standout underground metal releases each month. Mining Metal: Belore, Givre, Glassing, Hekseblad, La Torture Des Ténèbres, Love Sex Machine, Nuclear Tomb, and Tomb Portal ...
- Can Turning Office Towers Into Apartments Save Downtowns?on April 28, 2024 at 5:00 pm
In his business, a crucial metric for turning a profit is the time lag between borrowing ... it also saved him the cost of inserting thousands of feet of piping into concrete floors. It was but one ...
- Steel: The Latest Architecture and Newson April 23, 2024 at 5:00 pm
This is why – it is said – many are set to turn clockwise on the ascent ... is what our bodies make direct contact with; the cold metal handle, the warm wooden wall, and the hard glass ...
- Rechargeable concrete batteries could make buildings double as energy storageon March 21, 2024 at 1:28 pm
With this innovation, they could turn concrete slabs into batteries ... fibers to enhance conductivity and toughness, along with a metal-coated carbon fiber mesh, using iron and nickel as the ...
- 20 Concrete Patio Ideas for a Cozy Outdoor Retreaton February 27, 2024 at 8:37 am
Turn your outdoor space into everyone's new favorite hangout spot with these creative ideas. Give your concrete patio a quick ... patio features stone flooring, metal furniture and lighting ...
- Concrete Blocks: The Latest Architecture and Newson February 6, 2024 at 4:00 pm
Concrete blocks are prefabricated materials ... and reimagine the world around us, turning challenges into opportunities for progress. Nature, in particular, serves as a rich source of inspiration.
- Practical Visionaries Solving Today's Environmental Problemson April 22, 2022 at 6:54 pm
Had you first seen him on the day he discovered a substitute for concrete you might have ... by trickling water over a metal roof at night and turning it off in the morning. This technique ...
- How To Turn Your Basement Into a DIY Utopiaon March 7, 2021 at 2:08 pm
Projects came and went, each one marching in turn through the workroom ... Fast Plug hydraulic cement, which dries hard in just five minutes. Force the cement into the place with a stiff-blade ...
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Turning cement into metal
[google_news title=”” keyword=”turning cement into metal” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
The Latest Bing News on:
Room-temperature semiconductors
- 5 questions for Arati Prabhakaron May 10, 2024 at 12:59 pm
All technologies are overhyped. That’s how we do this, we get excited about some new advancement and there’s a lot of hype and then we have to take it with a grain of salt again. That’s why the hype ...
- Scientists create black arsenic visible infrared photodetectorson May 8, 2024 at 11:44 am
Examples of such crystals include graphene, black phosphorus (BP), and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). With their atomic thickness, high carrier mobility, and tunable bandgaps, ...
- Cypress Semiconductoron May 5, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Cypress Semiconductor operates as a semiconductor company in the United States and internationally. It delivers various high-performance, mixed-signal, and programmable solutions. Its products ...
- Design strategies toward plasmon-enhanced 2D material photodetectorson April 28, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Traditional semiconductors such as Si ... materials have provided decent opportunities to develop room-temperature, high-speed, ultra-sensitive, and broadband photodetectors because of their ...
- Georgia Tech group create world’s first graphene-based semiconductoron April 26, 2024 at 10:13 am
A group of researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) have created the world’s first functional semiconductor made from graphene, a development that could lead to advanced ...
- Cambridge Scientists Discover Simple “Twist” That Supercharges Clean Fuel Generationon April 26, 2024 at 8:55 am
Scientists have discovered a method to super-charge the ‘engine’ of sustainable fuel generation – by giving the materials a little twist. The researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, are devel ...
- Surface emitting semiconductor laser achieves efficiency breakthroughon April 4, 2024 at 8:03 am
Following this, in 2007, EEL also reached a high efficiency of 76% at room temperature ... these achievements have remained the pinnacle for semiconductor lasers. In contrast, the efficiency ...
- Challenges for semiconductor spintronicson October 30, 2023 at 12:54 am
This energy splitting is an order of magnitude lower than the thermal energy at room temperature. This is both a benefit and a danger for semiconductor spintronics. Local thermal equilibrium ...
- Paul L. Bergstromon April 6, 2021 at 12:27 am
Effort to develop SET devices functional at room temperature has been demonstrated by Bergstrom ... An additional area of significant research activity is in developing porous semiconductor materials ...
- Semiconductors for Room-Temperature Radiation Detector Applications IIon November 22, 2020 at 2:19 pm
The primary emphasis is on developing semiconductor X-ray and gamma-ray detectors and imagers which combine the advantages of room-temperature operation with the excellent energy resolution of ...
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Room-temperature semiconductors
[google_news title=”” keyword=”room-temperature semiconductors” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]