Science/Tech

Scientists Turn Cement Into Metal

By Christine Hsu | Update Date: May 27, 2013 03:10 PM EDT

Scientists have discovered how to turn liquid cement into liquid metal. 

Researchers say that the latest discovery means that cement can be used to help make thin film, protective coatings and computer chips.

"This new material has lots of applications including as thin-film resistors used in liquid-crystal displays, basically the flat panel computer monitor that you are probably reading this from at the moment," Chris Benmore, a physicist from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, said in a news release.

The latest finding, published in the journal the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences reveals a completely new way to make metallic-glass material, which has resistance to corrosion than traditional metal, less brittleness than traditional glass, conductivity, low energy loss in magnetic fields and fluidity for ease of processing and molding.  In the past, scientists have only been able to turn metals into metallic-glass form.

Researchers were able to turn cement into metallic glass using a process called electron trapping. They say understanding the process of how cement can be turned into metallic glass opens up the possibility of turning other solid insulating materials into room-temperature semi-conductors.

"This phenomenon of trapping electrons and turning liquid cement into liquid metal was found recently, but not explained in detail until now," Benmore said. "Now that we know the conditions needed to create trapped electrons in materials we can develop and test other materials to find out if we can make them conduct electricity in this way."

For the study, scientists melted mayenite, a component of alumina cement made of calcium and aluminum oxides, at 2,000 degrees Celsius using an aerodynamic levitator with carbon dioxide laser beam heating.  Researchers processed the material in different atmospheres to make sure the oxygen bones resulted in glass.  The levitator prevents the hot liquid from touching any container surfaces to keep it from forming crystals. Afterwards the liquid is cooled into a glassy state than can trap electrons in the way needed for electronic conduction. 

After further analysis research found that the conductivity was created when the free electrons were "trapped" in the care-like structures that form in the glass. They explained that the trapped electrons allowed a mechanism for conductivity similar to the mechanism that occurs in metals.

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