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Scientists have developed the world’s smallest electrical wire.
STATES CHRONICLE – Scientists have recently developed electrical wire by using the smallest diamonds ever existing. The new invention was created by experts at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and also at Stanford. This was categorized as being the tiniest electrical wire ever designed. They used the smallest pieces of diamonds in the world to manufacture this new product.
Scientists argue that these wires are only three atoms wide. The new technology and strategy used for this enable control and precision, without needing a hands-on intervention. Hao Yan, a researcher at Stanford, claimed that he together with his team wanted to demonstrate that it is possible to build small conductive wires which basically assemble themselves.
What is more, the process appears to be very simple. Yan stated that all you have to do is to put together all the needed ingredients, obtain immediate results, in approximately half an hour. The diamonds rearrange themselves as if they were indicated where to fill in the structure. Those diamondoids play two different roles, being insulator and assembly toolset all at once.
Diamondoids are bound to circle the semiconductor core. This is developed by using chalcogenide, a combination of sulfur and copper. Usually, diamondoids are extracted from petroleum, being rendered by size. Researchers are prone to choose diamonds developed from an atom of sulfur and ten atoms of carbon which merge.
After that, the pieces of diamonds were introduced in a mixture where every sulfur atom was combining with a copper ion. Immediately after merging, the diamonds were attracted to each other due to the existence of a force known as van der Waals attraction. The diamondoids naturally link together creating a small electrical wire of copper ions and sulfur.
Fei Hua Li, a Stanford grad student, explained that these diamondoids usually merge depending on their shape and size, looking just like LEGO pieces. The sulfur atoms and copper ions of every bit manage to reach in the middle of the structure, developing into the core of the wire which conducts electricity. The bigger diamonds link together on the outside, generating the insulating layer.
Nicholas Melosh, a professor at Stanford, claimed that people should imagine how this could be very useful if this structure were weaved into different types of fabric to maintain a constant temperature. This could be revolutionary.
Image courtesy of: pixabay
