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How Scientists Turned Cement into a Metal Conductor

Posted June 12, 2013 & filed under Uncategorized

How Scientists Turned Cement into a Metal Conductor

Is it possible to transform cement into glass?  How about a metal conductor?  That is precisely what researchers have accomplished at the Department of Energy and Japan’s Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute/Spring-8.  The team claims to have used lasers to transform cement into a glass-metal hybrid, a triumph that would send alchemists during the Renaissance into a frenzy.  So is alchemy becoming the new engineering?

With the rapid speed that technology evolves we have become accustomed to seeing new, unbelievable advances and experiments nearly every day.  Recent innovations have made the present feel more like a future rooted in science fiction.  3D printing is transforming the way we manufacture and ship materials, NanoSHIELD coating has given new life to old machinery, and various robotic limbs mirror something out of an Iron Man comic book.  We are used to technology found in science fiction eventually becoming reality, but not something that was ostensibly considered magic for centuries.

How does it work?

By melting down mayenite – an active ingredient in cement – with 2,000-degree Celsius lasers, the researchers were able to separate and alter its chemical structure.  Using an aerodynamic levitator to keep the material from making contact with any surface (effectively preventing it from forming crystals), the team was able to trap the free electrons within the material and transform it into a sustainable conductor.
This glass/metal hybrid is less brittle than glass and therefore easily malleable, and it still maintains the conductivity of metal materials.  If this technique continues to be successful scientists may just be able to create less common materials out of ordinary ingredients.

How can this be used?

Imagine a useful semiconductor made from glass.  It can carry the electric charge like a metal, be formed into a variety of shapes, but have the properties of glass.  If you are thinking that this could be useful in touchscreen technology for mobile phones, tablets, televisions, and computer screens then you are absolutely on the right track.

This is just the start of the team’s research, and they are hoping to use this technology to transform other materials into metals.  Although researchers have only managed to create a hybrid semiconductor from something as common as cement, there is no telling what other metals may be possible to create in the future.  Perhaps one day, we may finally see something as common as lead transmuted into gold.

By Kevin Withers

See more of the research here

Image courtesy of tim caynes via Flickr