The discovery of a new material with unique properties plastic capable of conducting electricity

The research shows how to make a type of material in which the molecular fragments are mixed and disordered, but which in turn are able to conduct electricity very well.

“If you want to create something revolutionary, the process often starts with the discovery of a completely new substance,” John Anderson, associate professor of chemistry at the University of Chicago, said in a university press release after he and his research team discovered a substance that could be made like Plastics, but they conduct electricity very well, much like metals.

According to Anderson, this material can be likened to the molding paste that young children use (clay), to learn art and shape dolls at home and school, known as Play-Doh.

Although this discovery goes against all the rules we know about conductivity, the result could be very useful, and the researchers believe that this scientific breakthrough could point the way to a new class of materials for electronics and facilitate the design of electrical devices.

The research, published Oct. 26 in the journal Nature , shows how to make a type of material in which the molecular fragments are mixed and disordered, but in return are able to conduct electricity very well.

There is no strong theory to explain it!

“This discovery goes against all the rules we know about electrical conductivity,” Anderson said, while Jiaze Shih, the study’s first researcher, said the material “essentially opens up new possibilities for a very important technological group of materials.”

It is worth noting that conductive materials are very necessary if you are making any type of electronic device, whether it is an iPhone, a solar panel or a television, and the oldest and largest group of conductors are metals such as copper, gold and aluminum. About 50 years ago, scientists were able to create conductors made of organic materials, using a chemical treatment known as the "activation process", which causes them to scatter different atoms or electrons through the material.

This is useful because these materials become more flexible and easier to process than traditional metals, but the problem is that they are not stable; It can lose conductivity if exposed to moisture or if the temperature rises too high.

But basically, both these metal-organic and conventional conductors share a common characteristic: they consist of straight rows and are tightly packed with atoms or molecules, meaning that electrons can easily flow through materials.

Scientists believed that the material must have these straight, orderly rows in order to conduct electricity efficiently. Then Shih began experimenting with materials that had been discovered years ago but largely ignored. Then, he attached nickel atoms like pearls into a chain of molecular grains made of carbon and sulfur, and began his tests.

To the scientists' surprise, the material that Xie succeeded in creating was easy to conduct electricity, and was very stable. “We heated it, cooled it, exposed it to air and moisture, and even dripped acid and base on it, and nothing happened,” Shih said. Of course, this is very useful for a device that works in the real world.

But in the eyes of scientists, the most surprising thing was that the material's molecular structure was disordered; "From the basic picture, this shouldn't be metal," Anderson said. "There is no solid theory to explain that."

Like lasagna plates

In a related matter, University of Chicago scientists have worked with other scientists across the university to try to understand how the material can conduct electricity. After tests, simulations and theoretical work, it was found that the material forms layers, like plates in lasagna meal.

Even when the plates are rotated sideways, the electrons can still move horizontally or vertically. What amazed scientists is that the material is easily conductive and has an unprecedented strength of electricity and the end result is an unprecedented conductive material, and scientists are very excited about this discovery because it points to a fundamentally new design principle for electronics technology. They explained that conductors are so important that any new development may open new lines of technology.

One of the attractive properties of the material is the new processing options. For example, metals must usually be melted in order to make them properly for a chip or device, and this limits what you can make with them, because the other components of the device must be able to withstand the heat needed to process these materials. Fortunately, the new material has no such restriction because it can be manufactured at room temperatures.

It can also be used in places where equipment is needed to withstand heat, acid, alkaline, or moisture. The team is also exploring the different shapes and functions that such materials might perform, and they believe they can be shaped into 2D or 3D shapes, made porous, or even provide other functions by adding different chemical bonds, allowing their use in many applications and emerging technologies.