Touch screen alternatives mitigate the world’s fear of indium deficiency

Have you ever imagined a smartphone or tablet without a touch screen? This can quickly be the case if you are deficient in indium, one of the rarest minerals on the planet.

Indium is a touch screen, smartphone, solar panel A smart window in the form of indium tin oxide. This compound is optically transparent and conductive. These are two important features that a touch screen needs to work.

But there is a problem. It means that the long-term supply of indium is not guaranteed. Of course, direct mining is not feasible, as it can only be seen in very few traces. Almost all of the world’s indium occurs as a by-product of zinc mining.

Fortunately, we have a potential solution. My colleague and I have developed a new way to make it optically transparent and electrical. Conductive coating Without indium.

Worse problems

Since the world’s indium supply is related to zinc mining, its availability and price depend on the demand for zinc.

Possibility of Declining Zinc Demand — Already Automobile manufacturingAs the use of smartphones and touch panels continues to increase, the possibility of running out of indium in the future will be exacerbated.

One option is to try recycling indium. However, recovering it from a used device is costly due to the small amount involved.

If you are missing important materials, you need to look for a replacement. And that’s exactly what my colleague and I found.

How does it work?

Our new coating, its details are published in the journal Solar energy materials and solar cells, Including plasma Technology.

Plasma is like a soup of charged particles in which electrons are torn from atoms and is often described as the fourth state of matter after solids, liquids, and gases.It may sound like an exotic substance, but it’s actually Over 99% of visible objects in the universe.. Our Sun, like most stars, is essentially a giant sphere of shining plasma.

Near the house, fluorescent lights and neon signs also contain plasma. Our new touchscreen film does not contain plasma, but its manufacture uses plasma to create new materials that cannot otherwise be created.

Our coating is made of an ultra-thin layer of silver sandwiched between two layers of tungsten oxide. The thickness of this structure is less than 100 nanometers, which is about one-thousandth the width of human hair.

These ultra-thin sandwich layers are created using a process called “” and are coated on glass.Plasma sputtering“This involves exposing a mixture of argon and oxygen gases to a strong electric field until the mixture changes to a plasma state. The plasma impacts the tungsten solid target and separates the atoms. Used for depositing as ultra-thin. Layers on the glass surface.

Then repeat this process with silver, and finally with a third time with tungsten oxide with silver nanoparticles embedded. The entire process is completed in just a few minutes, with minimal waste, cheaper than using indium, and can be used on glass surfaces such as phone screens and windows.

The finished plasma coating has another interesting feature. Electrochromic, Means that when a voltage is applied, it can become more or less opaque or change color.

This means that it can be used to create ultra-thin “printable displays” that can be darkened, brightened, and changed in color as needed. They are flexible and use very little power. In other words Scope of purpose Includes smart labels or smart windows.

A smart window coated with a new film can be used to block the flow of light and heat as needed. Our plasma film can be applied to any glass surface and can be set to adjust its transparency according to the outside weather. Unlike existing “photochromic” spectacle lenses that respond to ambient light levels, our materials are responsive to electrical signals and are free to manipulate.

Our new indium-Free technology has great potential to manufacture the next generation touch screen Devices such as smartphone Or with electronic paper as well as smart windows Solar cell For environmental sustainability. The technology is ready to scale up to create coatings on commercially available glass and is currently undergoing further research and development for adaptation to future wearable electronic devices.

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