Transparent semiconducting material enables “smart glass”
Research team manager Chang Yang from the Felix Bloch Institute for Solid State Physics of the University of Leipzig highlights that that copper iodide is both transparent and a so-called p-type conductor. In a p-conductor, the electrical conduction takes place through positive charged ‘holes’ rather than through electrons which carry a negative charge. In a thermoelectric device, a temperature difference and an associated heat flux are converted into electrical energy.
During his research, Chang Yang collaborated with the Technical University of Deggendorf (Germany) and the Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne (Great Britain).
Based on current research results, copper iodide can now be used to devise generators that are used to operate transparent circuits. Such generators were also developed at the University of Leipzig. These are suitable, among other things, to implement electronic circuits in windows and displays. In these materials, the electrons move much faster than in amorphous silicon, the standard material for thin-film transistors, and the circuits are more energy-efficient. The thin copper iodide layers are also flexible on polymer film and are thus suitable, for example, for use in apparel, on intelligent plasters or in flexible displays.
The researchers have published their new findings in the renowned journal “Nature Communications”.Original publication of the publication in “Nature Communications”: “Transparent Flexible Thermoelectric Material Based on Non-toxic Earth-Abundant P-Type Copper Iodide Thin Film”, doi: 10.1038 / ncomms16076
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