Technology frontier: carbon nanotubes will greatly reduce the price of touch screens 【Photos】

Recently, the Germans developed a new material using carbon nanotubes and low-cost polymers. Perhaps in the near future, it can replace the scarce and expensive ITO conductors in capacitive touch screens, thus allowing consumers with touch screens Electronic products are cheaper!

In the past decade, touch screens have gradually dominated the mobile phone and consumer electronics market, and their development momentum has been very good, with no signs of weakening.

In consumer electronics products, capacitive touch screens are common, and the commonly used material is ITO (nano indium tin metal oxide) conductors. ITO film has very good conductivity and transparency. After spraying on glass, plastic and electronic display screen, it can cut off the harmful electronic radiation, ultraviolet and far infrared rays to human body while enhancing the conductivity and transparency. Ideal material for making touch screen conductors.

But indium is too little in nature, so the price is more expensive, so finding an alternative to ITO has become a prerequisite for touch screens to truly dominate the consumer electronics market. Now researchers are preparing to use carbon nanotubes instead of ITO. The performance of the two is said to be very similar, but carbon nanotubes are much cheaper.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Automation in Stuttgart, Germany have developed this new type of electrode material, whose main components are carbon nanotubes and low-cost polymers.

The electrode has a total of two layers, one layer is very cheap polyester, which is the polyester that is often used to make plastic bottles. The other layer is a mixture of carbon nanotubes and conductive polymer, which together form the surface of the substrate.

The durability of plastic polymers is currently not as good as ITO, because humidity, pressure and ultraviolet light will have a greater impact on the polymer, making it more fragile. But carbon nanotubes can solve this problem to some extent, because it can harden the polyester and firmly fix the conductive polymer through a layer of mesh to make it more durable.

Ivica Kolaric, project leader of the Fraunhofer Institute, said: "The resistance of the new material we developed is greater than that of ITO, but its application in electrical systems is very simple. Compared with ITO, its advantages are numerous and those disadvantages Almost negligible. "

In addition to indium being very rare, ITO film has the disadvantages of being fragile and poor in plasticity, and the processing process needs to be performed in a vacuum environment, resulting in a very expensive price. In contrast, carbon has the advantages of renewable, low price, wide source, and strong plasticity, which makes carbon nanotubes more suitable for making touch screens than ITO. Ivica Kolaric also said that they have started experimental production to better develop carbon nanotube touch screens and expand their application range. (Author dashing)

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