Posted on 09/22/2018 6:47:01 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The researchers, from the College's Department of Materials Science and Engineering, report that the MXene titanium carbide can be dissolved in water to create an ink or paint. The exceptional conductivity of the material enables it to transmit and direct radio waves, even when it's applied in a very thin coating.
"We found that even transparent antennas with thicknesses of tens of nanometers were able to communicate efficiently," said Asia Sarycheva, a doctoral candidate in the A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute and Materials Science and Engineering Department. "By increasing the thickness up to 8 microns, the performance of MXene antenna achieved 98 percent of its predicted maximum value."
Preserving transmission quality in a form this thin is significant because it would allow antennas to easily be embedded—literally, sprayed on—in a wide variety of objects and surfaces without adding additional weight or circuitry or requiring a certain level of rigidity.
Initial testing of the sprayed antennas suggest that they can perform with the same range of quality as current antennas, which are made from familiar metals, like gold, silver, copper and aluminum, but are much thicker than MXene antennas. Making antennas smaller and lighter has long been a goal of materials scientists and electrical engineers, so this discovery is a sizeable step forward both in terms of reducing their footprint as well as broadening their application.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
Wow! The imagination runs wild. We’re not going to recognize the world of tomorrow.
I don’t recognize the world of today.
I’m an RF engineer, and I’ve used spray-on RF shielding. If the resistance of the material is low enough, I don’t see why there couldn’t be a spray-on antenna. You don’t even have to connect to it directly; you could capacitively couple to it from the circuit board itself.
Is a spray-on “faraday cage” possible?
Just imagine. You could take your antenna with you everywhere. Wonder if it works underwater or could be washed away during bathing.
Conductive inks have only been around for half a century...and companies are in business making antennas using them:
https://butlertechnologies.com/printed-antennas/
“washed away during bathing’? Are you going to spray your body? Not a good idea if an EMP hits. You might get shock therapy.
MXenes are "a class of two-dimensional inorganic compounds. These materials consist of few atoms thick layers of transition metal carbides, nitrides, or carbonitrides. First described in 2011, MXenes combine metallic conductivity of transition metal carbides and hydrophilic nature because of their hydroxyl or oxygen terminated surfaces....There was an article posted recently about using sodium batteries to replace Lithium Ion. Sodium is the sixth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and breakthroughs on sodium batteries could have a huge impact by removing the lithium constraint.As-synthesized MXenes prepared via Hydrofluoric (HF) acid etching have an accordion-like morphology, which can be referred to as a multi-layer MXene (ML-MXene), or a few-layer MXene (FL-MXene) when there are fewer than five layers....
MXenes, as conductive layered materials with tunable surface terminations, have been shown to be promising for energy storage applications (Li-ion batteries and supercapacitors), composites, photocatalysis, water purification and gas sensors...
In addition to the high power capabilities of MXenes, each MXene has a different active voltage window, which could allow their use as cathodes or anodes in batteries...
MXenes also exhibit promising performances for sodium-based energy storage devices. Na+ should diffuse rapidly on MXene surfaces, which is favorable for fast charging/discharging.
Fascinating that these researchers have found a whole new class of applications (antennas) and have done so using additive methods (printing) rather than subtractive (HF etching).
Thanks for posting!
Great material for spies of all kinds
Could that spray-on technology defeat the Faraday effect, making drivers sitting-ducks in thunderstorm commutes?_
On a car if the tires were spray with it?
Then the car would be grounded, theoretically.
I guess this discussion beats
the reading about that Ford woman.
I won’t claim to know anything more than how to quiet the hum in a Stratocaster.
Yep, no place for old men.
That’s what RF shielding is, essentially a “Faraday cage” for certain frequencies. So, yes, you can make an RF shield with spray-on conductive paint. I’ve done it. It is not possible to build a “Faraday cage” that blocks all frequencies, with any real material, though.
I disagree. I’m an engineer in my 50’s, and I say that only us “old guys” have the perspective to appreciate what we have now, and have the wisdom to know when not to overdesign.
Pup
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