Electrically Conductive Plastic Polymer

AustinSlacker writes to mention Fox news is reporting that a Dutch researcher is announcing a breakthrough in plastics. A new way of rebuilding plastics could allow them to conduct electricity just as well as the silicon wafers currently used in electronic gadgets. "Prins discovered that in plastics, the movement of electric charges was mainly hindered by the shape of the polymer, the chain-like molecular structure [that is] the basis of each kind of plastic. Prins extended the work of a German group that had reshaped a polymer to form a ladder-like structures. By bombarding the specially developed plastic with electrons from a particle accelerator, she was able to study rapid electrical reactions and demonstrate the new plastic's ability to conduct electricity much better than regular plastic and as well as silicon chips."

let me know when copper is an insulator.

[swschrad (312009)]

conductive plastic actually has some uses, but being a larger molecule than molecular silicon or germanium, doesn't make it look like the next New Chip Substrate.

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[friedman101 (618627)]

A bigger barrier to entry might be that this conducting plastic cannot function as a semiconductor. Lots of materials conduct electricity, lots insulate, few can do both.

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[theshowmecanuck (703852)]

While it's used to make semi-conductors, silicon on its own can't conduct at normal (human) working temperatures. Due to its negative temperature coefficient of resistance it will be able to effectively conduct at temperatures over roughly 1200C, but not at room temperature. You need to highly purify and dope the silicon in order to get it to produce semi-conductors that function at 'normal' working temperatures (which I don't think include 4 digit temperatures ;-) ). So maybe depending on what they do t

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[DRAGONWEEZEL (125809)]

Except that you can layer plastics easily, create meshes like cloth, and for instance your horizontil strands could be electrical while your vertical fibers could be of a non conducting polymer, like POLYESTER or something.

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[I Like Pudding (323363)]

What about solar-powered swimsuits?

Is that your carbon offset or are you just happy to see me?

Plastic electronics don't have 2 be supercomputers

[DRAGONWEEZEL (125809)]

The real benefit is things renewed potential for things like sensors, and smart clothing.

Maybe it will make short but wide networks possible, who knows.

I think mostly though, that it could be used to replace the small electronic devices that get used everyday that you don't think of from a techies perspective. Automotive pieces certain types of switches, small controllers, toys, medical devices, spoilage detectors for food/ food processing etc. These would be the key industries I can think of off the bat

As conductive as silicon?

[kmac06 (608921)]

Silicon is not a good conductor. The advantage it can be doped to make it as good of a conductor as necessary (which also allows you to make transistors out of it). I doubt this plastic can be doped...

Also, why not run a test current through it to measure the conductivity instead of using an accelerator?

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[whathappenedtomonday (581634)]

Also, why not run a test current through it to measure the conductivity instead of using an accelerator?

Because it's less fun?

duh

[Bill, Shooter of Bul (629286)]

If you had a choice between using a particle accelerator or a power supply, which would you use?

I hope to convince my office to move to the grounds of fermi lab, so I can have the choice as well.

Just have to remember to switch to conventional power supply before they start the experiments with anti matter.

Little bitty test prods ...

[Ungrounded Lightning (62228)]

... why not run a test current through it to measure the conductivity instead of using an accelerator?

She did.

But hooking up molecule-sized test prods to an ohmmeter was a pain.

So she used a particle accelerator to inject the electrons. (TFA doesn't say what else she used to measure the current.)

I've contemplated using scanning electron beams for electrical measurements. Say: a low-energy electron beam for the negative supply, a high-energy one (creating more secondary electrons than injected electrons) f

Computer of the future is near

[Jtheletter (686279)]

Ok, so in the last couple years or so we've seen the devlopment of: 1) electrically conductive plastics 2) transparent (when off) OLED-based displays, 3) transparent plastic-based circuits, 4) clear plastic-based batteries, 5) multitouch input capability, and 6) light-based data transfer methods and holographic data storage.

Within 10 years I hope to see all of these technologies combined into a geek fantasy device: a clear plastic tablet computer about the size of a pad of paper. Not to mention the hojillion other applications that suddenly become possible when you can embed a complete computer with I/O in a transparent medium: HUDs for glasses, store windows that are also dynamic advertising surfaces, image processing and data overlay on windshields (e.g. thermal or IR image data to augment the scene in poor visibility), etc.
I especially like the plastic battery concept since in theory you could make certain structural elements also function as you battery so there is no need for a bulky power source attached to the device, this would work well for the glasses display - the frames themselves could be the battery and/or processor. Although we'd definitely want to make sure there aren't any exploding battery incidents like with recent laptops.

Re:Computer of the future is near

[stratjakt (596332)]

Within 10 years I hope to see all of these technologies combined into a geek fantasy device: a clear plastic tablet computer about the size of a pad of paper.

Speak for yourself.

My fantasy device allows me to seduce any supermodel of my choosing, has rocket engines so it can fly, and 20 dollar bills come out the exhaust. It is also made of solid space gold (its not heavy) and the horn plays dixie and it sounds AWESOME!

That or an iPod.

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[suv4x4 (956391)]

Within 10 years I hope to see all of these technologies combined into a geek fantasy device

I'm personally not acknowledging any future until suicide booths and underwear commercials beamed directly in my dreams.

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[Jtheletter (686279)]

"...store windows that are also dynamic advertising surfaces"
Sounds wonderful *koff*koff*

I don't see why it wouldn't be. Right now store windows are *already* used for advertising, except that it involves printing new displays constantly on paper mediums and using tons of ink as well. It uses a lot of resources and generates a lot of waste that can't really be reused by the store. Sure, a video display will use energy so there's still enviromental costs involved at some level but the savings to the st

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[peragrin (659227)]

You do realize mercedes and BMW are already testing that tech. http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/print/3043 [ieee.org]

new Mercedes have a short range radar built into the cruise control. So if you come up behind a car moving slower than yourself it taps the brakes to slow you down to the speed of a car in front of you. it's not perfect if the vechicle is moving to slow or not moving you will sill hit it, but it does work say comingup on someone doing 50 while your doing 70.

In the 1970's Mercedes where one of the first co

Original release

[mattr (78516)]

Waging the good fight against dumbed-down science and research by press release, your masked hero finds.. this.

Mobile phones can soon survive being dropped [www.nwo.nl]

Good because you cannot get a patent after publication? Or bad because.. oh phooey. This might be by the same person.

* In unrelated news is anyone going to be at ETC2007 [iastate.edu]? Neal Stephenson talk and a new hires cave called C6 by Iowa State! Someone video the thing!

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[mattr (78516)]

The "this" link was slartibartifast. Here [bioinfo.pl] it is. plastic wire research. Anyway I don't know why the PR has to say phones will survive being dropped.. just put rubber in them! Jeez.

Neat!

[drewzhrodague (606182)]

That's neat! How long until we can print circuits with something like an ink-jet?

Possible use in solar cells?

[by Anonymous Coward]

If this type of plastic can be a conductive substance similar to silicon and costs less to produce, then this could be a huge advantage to those advocating the use of solar power. Currently one of the largest costs in creating solar cells is the high price for silicon which is used in them. The use of a cheap plastic polymer with properties similar to silicon might make solar cells much more reasonable to purchase for a lot of people.

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[DerangedAlchemist (995856)]

Polymer solar cells have already been made, there are some efficiency issues but they are incredibly cheap. The problem with them is that they disintegrate very quickly. As far as I understood, this was the real problem with conducting polymers of all sorts (the thiophenes, etc.) as far as I know. Anyone know the current status of this?

Oh good

[ObligatoryUserName (126027)]

I don't think we had enough uses for oil yet.

Some perspective on conductive polymers

[gt384u (560599)]

So I get the sensation that just like everywhere else on Slashdot, a lot of people are out of their depth when it comes to this topic. For some background, might I suggest reading about the work of the three men who shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2000 for their work in conductive polymers [nobelprize.org]. These materials are incredible in a myriad of ways, but require a nontrivial understanding of materials to really get it.

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[apocalysque (538221)]

actually, polymers are inherently more flexible than other plastics. this may actually make some products more durable. think of it this way: glass = silicon, rubber = polymer. which one breaks easier?

this misses the point entirely though, the main advantage is that the manufacturing process would be theoretically less expensive. much of the cost and difficulty with silicon chips today is involved with the manufacture/conditioning of the silicon wafers. plastics are very cheap these days.

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[by Anonymous Coward]

Why dont you take a look at how silicon wafers for microchip production, and how solar panels are produced, and just how environmentally hostile it is.

Or just bloviate with your 8th grade knowledge of science.

Carbon and Oxygen are everywhere too! Why all the crying about CO2 in the atmostphere?

From another article

[phorm (591458)]

by measuring the microwave absorption ... This avoided the need to use electrodes. Such electrodes often disrupt the measurement.

According to This [www.nwo.nl] article they avoided standard meters to gain better measurements.