Archive for the ‘Coatings’ Category
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February 12th, 2010
Gold for good – a new article from the WGC
Yesterday we released a new publication written by the World Gold Council and Cientifica called ‘Gold for good – gold and nanotechnology in the age of innovation’. The article, which is freely available on both the WGC and Cientifica websites, discusses the past, present and future of gold-based nanotechnology, focusing on key areas in medicine, the environment and technology.I am attending the 2010 Nanotech Japan event in Tokyo next week where I will be launching the article, and will follow this with a trip to the ACS spring meeting in California towards the end of March. Feel free to drop me a line if you are attending either event, I’d be happy to discuss any aspect of the WGCs activities, including our funding and investment programmes.
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January 22nd, 2010
Fault current limiters using gold-alloy coatings
Some months ago I blogged on the use of superconductors for fault current limiters devices. These require the use of a metallic shunt top layer to give a degree of thermal and electrical protection should a fault in the superconducting tape develop. This metallic layer is typically 50-100nm thick and must be resistant to oxidation at the high temperatures which can arise during both processing steps and in service during current overload situation. It must also serve as a barrier to prevent ingress of moisture into the YBCO superconductor. This story (although from last year – I’ve only just been told about here in Japan) shows the use of silver-gold alloy layers in a practical example of this technology.
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January 13th, 2010
Seeing through gold
Chemical and Engineering News is reporting that thin layers of evaporated gold are being used to help study the layer-dependent surface property of graphene. Advances in graphene technology have been hampered by the small number of microscopy and spectroscopy techniques capable of “seeing” graphene and distinguishing between samples of various thicknesses. The research from the National Center for Nanoscience & Technology, in Beijing has been published in JACS.
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December 21st, 2009
New Book – Gold Science and Applications
I’m excited to announce that a new book ‘Gold – Science and Applications’ has now been published.
There have been many excellent books written on certain aspects of the science and technology of gold, most notably the book of the Hanau gold conference, held in 1996 (“Gold. Progress in Chemistry, Biochemistry and Technology”, edited by Hubert Schmidbaur and published in 1999) and there are several new books covering specific sectors of gold science e.g. on catalysis, chemistry and nanotechnology (see here). However, for those seeking a broader reference source on gold and covering all technical sectors, the most appropriate book on gold, Gold Usage by Bill Rapson and Theo Groenewald, was published over 30 years ago in 1978. The world of gold has changed considerably since then. A few years ago Chris Corti and I believed it was time for an updated book that reflects the more recent developments.
With the co-operation of some of the leading experts in their field, we have attempted to produce a book that is a worthy successor to ‘Rapson’ and to provide an authoritive source of information. We have attempted to cover all the main scientific areas as well as the main areas of application. In some cases this has required some very detailed scientific chapters; other fields require less specific detail and have focused more on the practical application. In addition, to help readers place this science and technology in the context of a much wider gold market, a chapter on the supply, demand and pricing of gold is included. Taken together, our aim for the book is to appeal to both those working in academia and industry.
If you are interested, your can read more and purchase it here .
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December 2nd, 2009
Catch a rainbow
Catching a rainbow might sound like the storyline of a children’s fantasy adventure, but scientists in the US have done just that using glass and gold. See New Scientist for more on this story. Long-term the phenomenon may have relevance for optical computing and electronics.
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October 27th, 2009
Ford Motor Company and Au Nanoclad™
Some weeks ago I posted on the subject of fuel cell separator plates and how gold-coated stainless steel was proven to be the best material for this application, in terms of conductivity and durability. The only issue was cost – what was need was a reduced thickness gold coating, still displaying the performance of a thicker coating.
Well, according to a presentation to be made at Fuel Cells Durability & Performance 2009 (December 8-9, 2009 · Alexandria, VA USA) The Ford Motor Company is to present on ”Nanometer Range Gold Coated Stainless Steel for Automotive Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell Bipolar Plate”.
Apparently, Ford is currently developing metallic bipolar plate technology with thin gold-coated stainless steel (under the brand name Au Nanoclad™) provided by Daido Steel. They claim that the use of nanometer range gold coating delivers the required electrical conductivity and corrosion resistance with least impact of cost of gold. Additionally, gold-coated stainless steel shows anodic passivation, thereby exhibiting robustness towards coating defects including surface scratches during the manufacturing of the bipolar plate. Apparently the presentation at the conference will include the ex-situ and in-situ testing data for this material.Looks like a potentially fantastic new use for gold if the fuel cell market takes off…..
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October 23rd, 2009
New Gold Solar-Reflective Window Coatings?
‘Gold’ in this story could just relate to the colour rather than the metal itself but, although it doesn’t say it specifically, I suspect this might actually be a new market niche for gold. The story says:Gold aircraft window coatings by PPG Industries’ aerospace transparencies group are being introduced at the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) annual meeting and convention offer aircraft manufacturers aesthetic choices in solar-reflective coating technology. PPG’s solar-reflective coatings for glass and plastic aircraft windows reduce the amount of infrared energy entering the cockpit and cabin for cooler temperatures and reduced air-conditioning load.
Gold’s role in glazing applications has been known for a long time (see this Gold Bulletin paper here). I imagine this technology maybe based on the application of gold nanoparticles – as highlighted in this other Gold Bulletin paper- rather than the more traditional sputtered coatings.
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October 9th, 2009
SEMICON Europa 2009
This week I’ve been at SEMICON Europa as part of World Gold Council’s programme to support gold’s use in the electronics industry. I want to quickly mention one area that, although not part of our programme, does provide some rather visually stunning uses of gold; epitaxy reactor reflectors. These parts, a key component in semiconductor manufacturing, were exhibited by Gold Tech Industries. Unfortuantely I didn’t have my camera to capture an image but you can see one example part here!
The technical basis for heat control using gold coatings (the principle under-pinning the above application) was described some years ago in this Gold Bulletin paper.
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October 7th, 2009
Detecting infections – rapidly
A nice article has appeared on MITs Technology Review website describing the development of a new type of sensor for the diagnosis of infections. The technology is based around attaching DNA to a gold film. Gold acts to quench the glow of a fluorescent molecule attached to one end of the DNA. The DNA stays folded over until a target genetic sequence links to it. Its unfolding results in the fluorescent molecule moving away from the gold film and glowing, which can be seen under a fluorescent microscope.
The developers of the sensor, led by Benjamin Miller of the University of Rochester Medical Centre, have high hopes for the technology and believe it could be available commercially within 3 years. They hope to broaden use of the sensor to allow detection of multiple pathogens, as well as potentially moving into screening for genetic disorders and cancer.
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September 11th, 2009
New PCB finishes
The demand for improved multifunctional, high reliability printed circuit board (PCB) finishes is growing. Another product has been added to the market; Dow Electronic Materials has just announced its latest offering -Aurolectroless™ SMT immersion gold for ASIG (autocatalytic silver immersion gold) final finish process.Gold wire bonding is claimed to show exceptional bond strengths when using the complete ASIG process
Trevor Keel
Richard Holliday
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