A newly created transparent conductor may lead to cheaper flexible electronics.
Touch screens owe their magic to an electrically conductive film that sits just below the surface. In most devices, this layer is made from a compound known as indium tin oxide , which is rigid, expensive to manufacture, and requires the rare metal indium. Now, researchers have created a cheap and flexible alternative to ITO that could not only lower costs for touch screens, solar cells, and smart windows, but also enable new classes of bendable, wearable electronics.
As you scroll through TikTok videos, ITO conducts an unseen electrical current beneath your fingertips. Each time you swipe or tap, your finger disrupts that current and your phone reads the resulting signal. Your favorite videos can shine right through the ITO layer, which is transparent in thin films. This blend of transparency and conductivity also makes ITO essential in solar cells, light-emitting diodes, and smart windows, which change color under electrical fields.
That’s the significance of the latest result, from Purdue University chemist Jianguo Mei and colleagues. They developed a new synthetic technique that uses water and air to stitch together PBDF’s bonds with the help of a copper-based catalyst. Achieving this type of reaction in ordinary air—as opposed to the nitrogen gas used by Huang—“was previously considered impossible,” Pei says. That relative simplicity could encourage companies to adopt PBDF.
Mei agrees the results seem unbelievable, but he trusts that the data will hold up to scrutiny. “We could not believe it,” he says of his team’s reaction after seeing the results. “We did everything we could, even looking for outside help to validate the information. The data we collected was very exciting and at the same time very concerning because that [degree of conductivity] hasn’t been realistic in the past.
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