The electronics industry relies heavily on a special class of materials that change shape when you apply electricity or create electricity when you apply pressure. Because such materials are small and lightweight, they have become favorite components in the manufacture of the super-tiny electronic gadgets we love so well.
However, these materials―known as piezoelectrics or electrostrictors, depending on how they work―contain a dangerous ingredient: lead, the second most toxic metal after arsenic. Moreover, lead poisoning can last a long time; electrostrictive and piezoelectric components tend to be too small to be recycled, so tons of lead end up in landfills where, over many years, they pollute the soil and water and dangerously impact human health.
Now, a team led by Prof. Igor Lubomirsky in the Department of Molecular Chemistry and Materials Science has created a new, non-toxic ceramic that provides the functionality of the electronics industry’s prized piezoelectric and electrostrictive materials. This ceramic, produced from cerium oxide laced with about 10 percent zirconium oxide, is cheap and simple to manufacture.
Most importantly, the new material may eventually allow electronics firms to develop a new generation of lead-free components, thereby reducing the poisonous lead pollution generated by electronic waste.
“For about 10 years we’d studied something considered utterly useless―we did it for the sake of scientific curiosity,” Prof. Lubomirsky says. “Now we’ve suddenly obtained a material with potential engineering applications. The way our ceramic changes shape when you apply voltage is on par with the best commercial materials. It also requires far less energy to do the same work. We still don’t fully understand what happens in this material, but that’s precisely what makes it interesting.”
IGOR LUBOMIRSKY IS SUPPORTED BY:
• The Sagol Weizmann-MIT Bridge Program
• The Schwartz Reisman Collaborative Science Program
• The Rowland and Sylvia Schaefer Professorial Chair in Energy Research
