New 'Miracle Material' Could Make Cracked Phone Displays a Thing of the Past

We all wish our smartphone displays never crack. The wish seems to come true as a team of scientists has found a new material that is cheap, durable and can be used in several devices in future.

According to the paper published in the journal ACS Nano, manufacturers are hunting for material that can be used in place of less durable and expensive silicon compounds used in devices.

Elton Santos from Queen's University in Ireland and his team have created new dynamic hybrid devices that are able to conduct electricity at unprecedented speeds and are light, and are durable and easy to manufacture in large-scale semiconductor plants.

The team found that by combining semiconducting molecules C60 with layered materials, such as graphene and hBN, they could produce a unique material technology, which could revolutionise the concept of smart devices.

"Our findings show that this new 'miracle material' has similar physical properties to Silicon but it has improved chemical stability, lightness and flexibility, which could potentially be used in smart devices and would be much less likely to break," Santos explained.

"The material also could mean that devices use less energy than before because of the device architecture so could have improved battery life and less electric shocks," Santos added.

Santos' team is now working on transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) that are chemically stable, have large sources for production and band gaps that rival Silicon.