Will coal be able to replace silicon to become the king of a new generation of semiconductor materials?

According to foreign media reports, graphene may be the most typical representative of thin-film electronic components, but to mention the king of the material of the current semiconductor, it is none other than silicon, but scientists from MIT will soon be able to squeeze it down. Recently, the MIT research team for the first time realized the use of coal to manufacture thin-film electronic components. The R&D team pointed out that this kind of material is cheap and resource-rich, and it will find very good prospects for development in the fields of electronic equipment, solar panels and batteries.

According to the composition, age, and degree of compression, coal is divided into four categories: lignite, semi-anthracite, bituminous coal, and anthracite. The research team has made all four kinds of coal into thin-film electronic components, and compared them to determine that anthracite is the most suitable raw material for manufacturing thin-film electronic components.

First, the scientists crushed the anthracite and placed it in a solution, after which the solution was uniformly deposited onto the substrate using a fabrication method similar to graphene or silicon thin-film electronic components. However, unlike silicon, coal does not need to be refined to a purity of 99%, but it can be a normal comminution, which greatly reduces the difficulty of its manufacturing process.

Although coal is one of the most abundant resources for human use, in most cases people only use it as a fuel, and researchers rarely pay attention to the application prospects of their electronic and optical properties in the field of electronic equipment.

Now, the MIT research team has used coal to make an electronic heating element that can be used for equipment such as biomedical implants or automotive defrosters. And scientists also found that by adjusting the temperature of the element, the electronic and optical properties of the coal can fully meet certain specific values.

In addition, the researchers also said that their current discovery is only the beginning. Because coal has four categories, they think that the differences between them can also develop more functions.

Jeffrey Grossman, a professor of materials science and engineering at MIT, said that the biggest advantage of this new material is its low cost. In addition, compared with the application of silicon or graphene in electronic semiconductors, the manufacturing process of coal film is much simpler because it does not require as high a purity as the former.

Research reports have been published in Nano Letters.