‘Transparent Heater’
The Ulsan National Institute of Science & Technology (UNIST) announced on Dec. 21 that one of its research teams headed by professors Park Jang-woong and Kim Joo-young at the Department of Advanced Materials Engineering developed a metallic glass-based technique that allows a large-area transparent electrode to be produced in 10 seconds.
The metallic glass used at this time is a type of rustproof alloy. This material is characterized by high levels of elasticity, oxidation resistance and corrosion resistance. In addition, it has a very high level of electric conductivity, and its resistance is about one-tenth of that of ITO transparent electrodes, which means that it is especially suitable for high-performance transparent electrodes.
The research team succeeded in developing a transparent heater and a transparent gas sensor using the new technique, too. The heater can be changed in shape and can produce heat on the human skin, clothes, or anywhere. The gas sensor can be used for hazardous material detection at the tip of a finger.
Details of the research are available in the online edition of the Nano Letters released on Dec. 15.