New Materials Could Replace Costly Gold in Electrical Applications

Article: New Materials Could Replace Costly Gold in Electrical Applications
Source: Science Daily (University of Connecticut)
Date: October 15, 2010
Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101014083122.htm
Summary:
The article explains how appliances and electronic applications / electronics we use contain costly metals such as gold, platinum, rhodium, and silver along with other metals because of their high conductivity, low oxidation, and minimal amount of corrosion over time. Professors from the University of Connecticut named Mark Aindow and S. Pamir Alpay along with Joseph Mantese of UTRC have created/developed metals that act like platinum, gold, and silver in how they react to oxidizing environments. Nickel, copper and iron were the three metals compared to the more expensive metals like platinum and gold. “Based on their research, they have laid out the theory and demonstrated experimentally the methodology for improving the electrical contact resistance of these base metals.” The experimental processes used to test these metals including separation of conducting pathways, inducing mixed oxidation, and enhanced carrier concentration “Their work has demonstrated an improvement in contact resistance of up to one-million-fold over that for pure base metals, so that base metal contacts can now be prepared with contact properties near those of pure gold.”
Significance:
The significance of this article to society would be that electronics along with appliances that we use daily will be cheaper and more affordable in the future due to the costs to manufacture these goods along with supply and demand from customers. I believe that the study of these cheaper metals would in some way influence the study of other resources that could be beneficial to the needs of humans.