Hairs Shaved Off Nanocrystals May Develop Better Functioning Electronic Devices Like Solar Cells, Phones, and Quantum Computers

A new study recently introduced a breakthrough in making nanocrystals electronically function together. This recently published research may open the doors to future devices with new capabilities.

As specified in a Phys.org report, one can care for a whole computer in his pocket today as technological building blocks have been tinier and tinier since the 1950s.

However, researchers will need to develop new technology at the smallest scale to develop future generations of electronics like more efficient solar cells, more powerful mobile phones, or even quantum computers.

One area of interest, this report said, is nanocrystals. These small crystals can assemble themselves into numerous configurations, although scientists have had difficulty figuring out to make them talk to each other.

Super Building Blocks

According to Professor Dmitri Talapin from the University of Chicago, they call the assembly "super atomic building blocks" as they can grant new abilities, for instance, allowing cameras to see the infrared range.

Talapin, the paper's corresponding author, added that it has been quite challenging to assemble them into constructions and have them "talk to each other." Now, for the first time, there's no need to choose. He also said, such a strategy is a transformative enhancement.

In their study published in the Science journal, the researchers laid out design rules which should enable the creation of many different material types, explained Josh Portner, a Ph.D. student in chemistry and one of the study's first authors.

Growing Nanomaterials Out of Metals, Magnets, and Semiconductors

Scientists can now grow nanomaterials out of numerous different materials like metals, magnets, and semiconductors will each generate different properties.

However, the trouble was that whenever they tried to assemble the nanocrystals into arrays, the new super crystals would grow with long hairs surrounding them.

These hairs made it difficult for electrons to jump from one nanocrystal to another. Electrons are electronic communication messengers; their ability to move along easily is a vital part of any electronic device.

The scientists needed an approach to reduce the hairs surrounding each nanocrystal, and thus they could pack them in more tightly to lessen the gaps in between.

Shaving Off the Hairs

For the hairs to be shaved off, the study investigators sought to understand what was going on at the atomic level. More so, they needed the help of powerful X-rays at the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and powerful simulations and models of physics and chemistry at play. All these enabled them to understand what was going on at the surface, and discover the key to harnessing their production.

A similar Technology-Now report said that part of the process of growing super crystals is carried out in solution, that is, in liquid. It appears, as the crystals grow bigger, they go through a transformation in which solid, liquid, and gas phases all co-exist.

By accurately regulating the chemistry of that particular stage, they could yield crystals with harder, thinner exteriors that could be packed in together much more closely. Understanding their phase behavior was a huge leap forward for the team.

Related information about nanocrystals is shown on the American Chemical Society's YouTube video below:

Check out more news and information on Nanotechnology in Science Times.