Paper electrified by copper particles

Monday, March 16, 2009 - 14:42 in Physics & Chemistry

The Polymer Chemistry Research Group at the University of Helsinki, Finland, has succeeded in producing nano-sized metallic copper particles. When the size of particles is reduced to a nano-scale (one nanometre being one billionth of a metre), the properties of the material undergo substantial changes. Unlike in bulk materials, in nanoparticles the number of surface atoms is considerably greater than the number of atoms inside the material, which, among other things, makes the melting temperature of nanomaterials very low. With suitable heat treatment (sintering), the particles manufactured by the research group can be made to form electricity-conducting layers and patterns on paper.

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