Like most items with which we live and use on a daily basis, electronics are subject to wear and tear, which reduces their performance until they need to be replaced.
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However, the field of self-repairing material is growing rapidly, and scientists at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed eco-friendly nanocrystal semiconducters that can "heal" themselves – potentially saving users from shelling out for another new smartphone.
The journal Advanced Functional Materials recently published the researchers' findings, which show a group of materials called double perovskites displaying self-healing properties after being damaged by radiation from an electron beam. Perovskites, first discovered in the 19th century, caught scientists' attention because of their electro-optical characteristics that make them highly efficient in converting energy.
Professor Yehonadav Bekenstein from the Technion's Faculty of Materials Sciences and Engineering and the Solid-State Institute is leading a team that specializes in the synthesis of nano-scale crystals from new materials. By controlling the crystals' composition, shape, and size, they change the material's physical properties. The team is seeking out environmentally friendly alternatives to toxic lead, and engineering perovskites that are free of lead.
Bekenstein's lab produced perovskite nanoparticles through a short, simple process that involved heating the material to 100°C for a few minutes. When Ph.D. students Sasha Khalfin and Noam Veber examined the particles using a transmission electron microscope, they discovered that the microscope's high-voltage electron beam created holes in the nanocrystals. The researchers were then able to explore how those holes interacted with the surrounding material.
The researchers developed a code that analyzed dozens of videos made using the electron microscope and discovered that found that holes formed on the surface of the nanoparticles, then moved to energetically stable areas inside. They hypothesized that holes moved inward due to organic molecules that coated the nanocrystals' surface. Once these organic molecules were removed, the group discovered the crystal spontaneously ejected the holes to the surface and out, essentially repairing itself.
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