World's First Practical Plastic Magnet

Stopmotioncleaverman writes "New Scientist is reporting that scientists at the University of Durham in the UK have created the world's first plastic magnet to work at room temperature from two compounds, emeraldine base polyaniline (PANi) and tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ). In 2001, scientists in Nebraska created a plastic magnet, but it only worked at 10 Kelvin. Most notably from the article - "One of the most likely applications is in the magnetic coating of computer hard discs, which could lead to a new generation of high-capacity discs". This story is also being reported in lots of other places."

Comments

Obligatory

[CaptPuff]

I for one welcome our plastic robot overlords... of the non-vibrating kind...

I have this image..

[hexMonkey]

of Michael Jackson stuck to a lamppost

Plastic Fantastic

[Anonymous Coward]

So this is going to confuse poor operators of MRI machines then. Now they can't even take plastic stuff in. They'll have to go in naked.

Mmmmm Naked Nurses :)

Re:Plastic Fantastic

[Lord Kano]

Mmmmm Naked Nurses :)

My grandmother and ex-wife are nurses. The naughty nurse fantasy was ruined for me.

LK

Coming soon: Refrigerator Magnet Barbie

[Anonymous Coward]

Whoohoo! In 2007, you'll be able to attach Barbie to the fridge.

This takes time

[bert.cl]

After a quick read, I can only see that the polymer needs a lot of time to get magnetic properties, as opposed to metal. This might come in handy with hard disks, however, another usage I had in mind (Lego bricks and other children's toys) falls of the boat. Since I think this will be a little to expensive.

I might be wrong though, I'm not a rocket scientist (or polymer scientist if you want)

Re:This takes time

[Spad]

This is only their first prototype. The fact that it took some time for the magnetic properties to exhibit themselves may be a property of the polymer or it could simply be a result of what amounts to guesswork in producing the stuff in the first place.

Now that they know they can get magnetic properties from the polymer they can work on refining it - making it stronger, more uniform and possibly "faster".

Also, there's no real detail about the methods behind the creation of the magnets - for all you know it might cost them 50p to make each magnet, which would make mass-produced children's toys perfectly possible.

Re:This takes time

[RWerp]

I found the original article overhyped. It's just a "one sample effect". They need to present a method of producing (even highly inefficiently) ferromagnetic polymers, which works at least most of the time. Right now, they are probably guessing "but how did we do it???".

People were delivering similar reports on "discovery of room temperature superconductivity" in the past. The trouble is, they could not repeat their achievements. They were also from Croatia, which didn't give them that much publicity.

Potential for high-end audio applications?

[j3ll0]

I'm sure the audiophiles will correct me, but is it possible that this could be used to produce seriously high quality audio gear: specifically speakers?

My understanding of speaker technology is that at it's most basic, a cone is held attached in some way to a magnet, which is moved by modulating the intensity of an opposing magnetic field. The movement of the cone produces sound.

If you could build the magnet into the cone, ie make the cone out of magnetic plastic, that would have to eliminate a source of distortion from the reproduction, which would lead to better quality sound.

I see this as a more realistic first application than building platters out of plastic.

What do the audiophiles have to say?

Re:Potential for high-end audio applications?

[JanneM]

IANAAP, but I believe electrostatic speakers covers that aspect pretty well already. There, the entire surface of the membrane is moving in concert as well.

Re:Potential for high-end audio applications?

[Vellmont]

What do the audiophiles have to say?

The "audiophiles" will say whatever you want them to say given the right price, and hype. Make it expensive and hype it up like "monster cables" and it'll be audio gold. Make it cheap and common and everyone will want "old fashioned magnets".

Re:Potential for high-end audio applications?

[iamdrscience]

I don't really see how this plastic could ever really help make a better speaker, but knowing how many useless superstitious expensive bullshit many audiophiles will buy (i.e. cable that costs $300 per meter), I'm sure if you made such a product you'd have no trouble selling it.

Re:Potential for high-end audio applications?

[Lisandro]

What makes a speaker good is it's mainly the cone itself: it has to be very rigid but also very thin; if it's too heavy the amplifier needs to be more powerful (which reduces it's efficiency), and if it's too elastic it will vibrate and bend when moved back and forth, creating a nasty distortion. Not only that, the cone material has to be sonically "dead" (won't resonate at audible frequencies).
Paper is the preffered choice; there's also kevlar laminate for some high end speakers. Some high frequency speakers ("tweeters") are made of aluminium.

In fact, one of the latest "advancements" in speaker construction was not long ago when a japanese fella discovered how to shape thin wood sheets into cones... after soaking them with sake - apparently it's good for more than drinking, and makes one hell of a cone material. Not cheap though.

I build my audio gear, and you wouldn't beleive the ammount of variables that goes into speaker designing (number of speakers, enclosure volume and shape, variable impedances, type and implementation of crossover network, etc). I think this technology could improve the magnets used in speakers if nothing else, making them cheaper, or stronger, but plastic cones (unless VERY rigid), it's not a good idea overall.

Re:Potential for high-end audio applications?

[jcr]

Well, whether this material is suitable for speakers depends as much on its other physical properties (stiffness, density, etc.) as is magnetic properties.

An idea speaker cone has no mass, and is infinitely stiff. An ideal driver is a voice coil with no resistance, working against a magnetic field with the highest flux density you can get.

If you were to use this material in a speaker, it might make a decent diaphragm for a planar-type speaker, but just how good it is remains to be seen.

-jcr

Cool!

[TheDigitalOne]

Does this mean that I can now stick my floppy discs to the refrigerator without wiping out the data?

Heh :)

Ohdear...

[tigress]

This is going to have some serious implications on the world's superhero balance of power.

Could this lead

[I7D]

Could this lead to lighter electric motors? Which might make the future of printing products in a personal 3D printer more functional.

Re:Replacing copper in hydrogen fuelcell engines

[Vo0k]

Sorry to disappoint you but the idea isn't as stupid as it looks :)
Electric motor needs magnets on both sides, both stator and motor. Only one needs to create variable field. You can perfectly well make the stator or rotor with normal magnets, frequently done with small motors too. The problem is any larger magnets are damn heavy compared to their strength, so usually in stronger/bigger motors electromagnets are used instead. Now if the plastic magnet was light enough and strong enough, it could perfectly well replace half of the coils present in the motor. The other half would have to remain there to create the changing field.

As a resident of Durham I should point out...

[levell]

This article might be a tad misleading, most days room temperature here is about 10 Kelvin if you leave a window open.

(For people that don't understand the Kelvin temperature scale this is not true and is in fact a bad attempt at humour)