University at buffallo chemists have developed a safe method to grow zinc oxide thin films(made of dense bristle like nanostructures)and deposite it over temperature sensitive substrate (ex:plastic,tapes etc..which is a real tough job!).
The good feature of the pure zinc oxide film are they could be blend to any shape whereas the bad one is that they have to be deposited at very high temperature which may cause the substrate to melt!.
how did they overcome this?
Chemist james garvey along with other UB researchers have developed a method (brainy guys!)
and it is
they grow the thin films by first reacting zinc metal and oxygen in the presence of a high power, electrical arc discharge.
The method they developed, called Pulsed Arc Molecular Beam Deposition (PAMBD), strikes a discharge between two pure zinc rods.
This lightening-like discharge creates a bright, blue plasma five times hotter than the surface of the sun!
At this high temperature the pure metal zinc gets vapourized and reacts with the oxygen gas pulse to form zinc oxide molecules.The gaseous zinc oxide is then sprayed through a tiny aperture, a process that results in cooling the expanding gas down to about 50 degrees Kelvin, allowing the beam of now cold metal oxides to safely coat even the most temperature-sensitive surfaces.
"This is an enabling technology that will allow for the deposition of thin films on batteries, credit cards, on any flexible surface you have," Garvey said, adding that the UB process can use any metal and a wide array of different metal oxides can be produced easily.
see this to know more about Garvey's research..
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