Science Daily October 26, 2022
An international team of researchers (USA – University of Chicago, Stony Brook University, Argonne National Laboratory, South Korea) discovered a way to create a material that can be made like a plastic but conducts electricity more like a metal when they strung nickel atoms like pearls into a string of molecular beads made of carbon and sulfur. The material easily and strongly conducted electricity when heated or chilled or exposed to air and humidity, or even dripped acid and base. But the most striking thing was that the molecular structure of the material was disordered. After tests, simulations, and theoretical work, they thought that the material forms layers, even if the sheets rotate sideways, no longer forming a neat stack, electrons can still move horizontally or vertically as long as the pieces touch. The materials can be made at room temperature, can be used where the need for a device to withstand heat, acid or alkalinity, or humidity. The team is also exploring the different forms and functions the material might make, or even introduce other functions by adding different linkers or nodes…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Synthesis and structure of NiTTFtt. Credit: Nature (2022)Â