Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Melting Away Ice Hazards

Posted by michael on from the electrifying-discoveries dept.

RadioheadKid writes "Dartmouth College Professor Victor F. Petrenko is getting a grip on ice. He and his colleagues have found ways to take advantage of the "protonic" semiconductor properties of frozen water. They see many applications of this discovery from melting ice on power lines to electronic speed control for skis and snowboards. I guess those Petrenkos just love the ice."

3 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. Fascinating stuff by The+Tyro · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Protons carrying the charge, hmmm? I suppose any charged particle could theoretically carry a current, but I must admit I never thought of "proton flow" as a way to do it...

    Water really is an interesting material.

    Universal solvent (polar solvent, for you organic chemistry nitpickers)

    Has its greatest density BEFORE it reaches its solid state of matter (ice). If you ever wondered why ponds and rivers don't freeze from the bottom up, that's the reason. Someone correct me, but I think the temperature of greatest density is 39F.

    That's really quite a discovery... can't wait to see if they can make something useful out of it.

    --
    Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
  2. solar power by roman_mir · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Many properties are completely different, but there are similarities between ice and the usual semiconductors," he says. For instance, he discovered that ice crystals can exhibit protonic photoconductivity. "It would be possible to create an ice solar cell," albeit one with substantially lower efficiency than silicon. Field effect transistors made of ice have also been developed that "work the same way as silicon."

    Ok, who right away thought of turning north and south poles into electricity generating power plants?

    --
    You can't handle the truth.
  3. Wireless skis by isdnip · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I like his adjustable skis. But how do you set the speed? It's not practical to bend over and tweak a knob on top while going down a hill; at least, it would not be good style.

    But if the control circuit used, say, Bluetooth, and the control buttons were in, say, the pole handles, then the skier would have good control while staying in motion. This could be quite nice.

    (If somebody tries to patent the idea with a later date than today, remember, you heard it first on Slashdot, making it potentially Prior Art.)