2024-08-29 22:48:40
Although copper still maintains great importance in the world of electricity due to its high conductivity and his comfortable price In the market, a research in the United States identified a new strong contender among the metals that could replace it. It is the aluminum.
Researchers from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), materials scientists, discovered that aluminum is not only cheaper, but also lighter and more abundant than copper, used in everything from electronics to power grids. Their findings were published in Physical Review B.
Copper fibers are found in most electrical cables we use. Photo: Flickr
Why is aluminum a better alternative than copper?
Aluminum, a metal known for its lightness y corrosion resistanceemerges as a promising alternative to copper in the field of electrical conductivity.
At three times the cost of copper, according to updated data from Statista, aluminum offers an economical and viable solution for industries seeking to reduce costs without sacrificing quality. In addition, its abundance in the earth’s crust makes it more accessible and sustainable in the long term.
Although copper has historically been preferred for its higher conductivity, aluminum has significant advantages in terms of weight and versatility, being 30% lighter, making it ideal for technologies where weight is a crucial factor, such as electric vehicles and aircraft.
However, although everything sounds rosy, the main challenge for scientists has always been to improve the electrical conductivity of aluminium to make it comparable with the main conductive metal, since it only has 60%.
“What if you could make aluminum more conductive, even 80% or 90% as conductive as copper? You could replace it and that would make a huge difference because aluminum is lighter, cheaper and more abundant,” Keerti Kappagantula, a scientist at PNNL, said in a statement.
How was the conductivity of aluminum increased?
To achieve greater conductivity from aluminum, the PNNL team focused their efforts on modifying the atomic structure of metalin addition to identifying its temperature effects and structural defects as a conductor.
Since this was a novel approach for metals, the researchers looked to semiconductors for inspiration because previous studies had successfully simulated the conductivity of silicon-based materials and some metal oxides.
After adapting these concepts, they simulated what would happen to the conductivity of aluminium if the individual atoms in its structure were rearranged. This whole process generated large gains in the metal’s overall conductivity.
“We didn’t think these results would be so close to reality,” Kappagantula said. “This model simulation that is based on the atomic structure and its different states is so accurate that I said, ‘Oh, that’s right on target. ’ It’s very exciting.”
According to experts, the next step is to move from simulations to laboratory experiments to see if theory matches the results.
What is an electrical conductor?
This is a material that offers low resistance to the movement of electric current, a quality that is due to the low presence of electrons in its atoms.
There are various materials that are good conductors of electricity. Metals include, in addition to aluminum and copper, silver, gold and iron. Graphite, a non-metallic material, is a semiconductor.