Thin films of metal oxides printed at room temperature could revolutionize display technology.
Scientists from North Carolina State University, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology and the University of Waterloo have developed a metal oxide film. It is transparent, flexible, has high conductivity and can withstand high temperatures, writes Interesting Engineering.
Scientists applied layers of metal oxides by printing, creating both reliable and universal circuits. The transparency of the resulting films is critical for applications such as mobile phone screens and computer monitors. The fact is that the electrodes are used to make the screen touch-sensitive and control the pixels of light. In this case, the oxide should be transparent — and this was achieved.
It was also possible to make the films flexible due to their thinness — 4 nm. They can be bent/folded without breaking, even though the oxides have the same mechanical properties as glass. This could open up new applications for these materials, such as in flexible electronics.
The researchers found that the oxide is stable at high temperatures, meaning the films are durable and could be useful for high-temperature applications. For example, they can be used in the development of sensors or electronics that work in extreme conditions.
Conventional methods of obtaining metal oxide for electronics are time-consuming, expensive and require high temperatures. However, the new method represents a more efficient approach that creates and deposits films of metal oxides at room temperature.
During the development of the film printing method, scientists added only a small amount of aluminum to gallium (a metal with a low melting point), thanks to why was it possible to lower the temperature. Now the team hopes to extend the film printing technology to other metals.