Cracked smartphone screens will soon be a thing of the past, thanks to this ‘miracle’ material
Any smartphone user knows the frustration of a cracked screen. Shattered screens are not only inconvenient, but also a main contributor to the world’s electronic waste and over-consumption problem, as Tree Hugger reports.
A team of scientists from Queen’s University’s School of Mathematics and Physics, Stanford University, University of California, California State University and the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan tried to develop a material that could eliminate broken screens for good.
The team let their expertise in chemistry, physics and material science take a front seat and made the stable material that contains semiconducting molecules C60 with layered materials, like graphene and hBN. Furthermore, it can convert sunlight into electricity.
loading...
“Our findings show that this new ‘miracle material’ has similar physical properties to Silicon but it has improved chemical stability, lightness and flexibibity, which could potentially be used in smart devices and would be much less likely to break,” Dr. Elton Santos from Queen’s University’s School of Mathematics and Physics said. “The material also could mean that devices use less energy than before because of the device architecture so could have improved battery life and less electric shocks.”
There still is a problem getting in the way. The material architecture is missing a band gap that allows the on-off switching of electronic devices. However, the scientists already have a solution for that, so breaking-proof phones that power themselves might come sooner than we think.
Loading...