Wednesday, December 6, 2023
SCIENMAG: Latest Science and Health News
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Scienmag - Latest science news from science magazine
No Result
View All Result
Home SCIENCE NEWS Technology and Engineering

Researchers’ metallic glue may stick it to soldering and welding

January 8, 2016
in Technology and Engineering
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

IMAGE

IMAGE: Hanchen Huang and colleagues, experts in nanotechnology, have developed a glue that binds metal to metal to glass to you-name-it, sets at room temperature, and requires little pressure to seal….

Credit: Northeastern University

Per­haps no startup was launched for a more intriguing reason than that of Northeastern's Hanchen Huang. From the com­pany website:

"MesoGlue was founded by Huang and two of his PhD stu­dents: They had a dream of a better way of sticking things together."

Those "things" are every­thing from a computer's cen­tral pro­cessing unit and a printed cir­cuit board to the glass and metal fil­a­ment in a light bulb. The "way" of attaching them is, aston­ish­ingly, a glue made out of metal that sets at room tem­per­a­ture and requires very little pres­sure to seal. "It's like welding or sol­dering but without the heat," says Huang, who is pro­fessor and chair in the Depart­ment of Mechan­ical and Indus­trial Engineering.

In a new paper, pub­lished in the Jan­uary issue of Advanced Mate­rials & Processes, Huang and col­leagues, including North­eastern doc­toral stu­dent Paul Elliott, describe their latest advances in the glue's devel­op­ment. Our curiosity was piqued: Sol­dering with no heat? We asked Huang to elaborate.

On new devel­op­ments in the com­po­si­tion of the metallic glue:

"Both 'metal' and 'glue' are familiar terms to most people, but their com­bi­na­tion is new and made pos­sible by unique prop­er­ties of metallic nanorods–infinitesimally small rods with metal cores that we have coated with the ele­ment indium on one side and galium on the other. These coated rods are arranged along a sub­strate like angled teeth on a comb: There is a bottom 'comb' and a top 'comb.' We then inter­lace the 'teeth.' When indium and galium touch each other, they form a liquid. The metal core of the rods acts to turn that liquid into a solid. The resulting glue pro­vides the strength and thermal/?electrical con­duc­tance of a metal bond. We recently received a new pro­vi­sional patent for this devel­op­ment through North­eastern University."

On the spe­cial prop­er­ties of the metallic glue:

"The stan­dard polymer glue does not func­tion at high tem­per­a­tures or high pres­sures, but the metallic glue does. The stan­dard glue is not a great con­ductor of heat and/?or elec­tricity, but the metallic glue is. Fur­ther­more, the stan­dard glue is not very resis­tant to air or gas leaks, but the metallic glue is.

"'Hot' processes like sol­dering and welding can result in metallic con­nec­tions that are sim­ilar to those pro­duced with the metallic glue, but they cost much more. In addi­tion, the high tem­per­a­ture nec­es­sary for these processes has dele­te­rious effects on neigh­boring com­po­nents, such as junc­tions in semi­con­ductor devices. Such effects can speed up failure and not only increase cost but also prove dan­gerous to users."

What are some appli­ca­tions of the technology?

"The metallic glue has mul­tiple appli­ca­tions, many of them in the elec­tronics industry. As a heat con­ductor, it may replace the thermal grease cur­rently being used, and as an elec­trical con­ductor, it may replace today's sol­ders. Par­tic­ular prod­ucts include solar cells, pipe fit­tings, and com­po­nents for com­puters and mobile devices."

###

Media Contact

Casey Bayer
c.bayer@neu.edu
617-373-2592
@Northeastern

http://www.neu.edu

Share25Tweet16Share4ShareSendShare
  • Ryugu micrometeorites

    Meteorites likely source of nitrogen for early Earth

    70 shares
    Share 28 Tweet 18
  • ‘Shocking’ discovery: Electricity from electric eels may transfer genetic material to nearby animals

    66 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 17
  • Scientists build tiny biological robots from human cells

    68 shares
    Share 27 Tweet 17
  • Elham Azizi vs. cancer: Fighting the disease with data, AI, and math

    65 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16
  • New study identifies the greatest threat to wildlife across North America and Canada: people

    65 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16
  • Pregnant women are missing vital nutrients needed for them and their babies – and situation could worsen with plant-based foods

    64 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16
ADVERTISEMENT

About us

We bring you the latest science news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Latest NEWS

Fungus from Arrakis: New species named after Dune’s giant worms

Null results research now published by major behavioral medicine journal

Meteorites likely source of nitrogen for early Earth

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 208 other subscribers

© 2023 Scienmag- Science Magazine: Latest Science News.

No Result
View All Result
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US

© 2023 Scienmag- Science Magazine: Latest Science News.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In