Molybdenite As an Alternative To Silicon

An anonymous reader writes "Molybdenite (MoS2) can be used to make transistors that consume 100,000 times less energy in standby state. This mineral, which is abundant in nature, is often used as an element in steel alloys or as an additive in lubricants. Research carried out in Switzerland at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne's Laboratory of Nanoscale Electronics and Structures (LANES) has revealed that is a very effective semiconductor. Molybdenite's 1.8 electron-volt gap is ideal for transistors and gives it an advantage over graphene (which does not have a gap)."

Comments

Re:Molykote?

[pwagland]

Isn't this just Moly disulphide, the lubricant in Molykote? http://www.dowcorning.com/content/molykote/anniversary.aspx?bhcp=1

Possibly, from the article:

This mineral, which is abundant in nature, is often used as an element in steel alloys or as an additive in lubricants. But it had not yet been extensively studied for use in electronics.

That is this material has been known about for quite some time, however it's applications to electronics are only now being investigated, and he initial results appear to be quite favourable.

Abundant ... hello?

[angel'o'sphere]

This mineral, which is abundant in nature, is often used as an element in steel alloys or as an additive in lubricants. That is a joke, isn't it? Or is it just /.? From Wikipedia: Molybdenum is the 54th most abundant element in the Earth's crust and the 25th most abundant element in the oceans, with an average of 10 parts per billion; it is the 42nd most abundant element in the Universe. That is not abundant that is pretty rare. Considering 35% of the planet is silicon ... or is it more? Regards, Angel

Re:Abundant ... hello?

[Namarrgon]

That table you linked to says the annual production of molybdenum is 80 kilotonnes, which is not exactly rare.

It also says that the annual production of electronics-grade silicon is only 5 kilotonnes, so our needs aren't going to be a problem.

Re:Let me just say

[Gaygirlie]

Plus, can you image a goddamn smart phone with a week long battery life?? Or a laptop that runs for days without needing to recharge? A server farm that could be powered by solar power and a few large battery power storage units?

You have misunderstood the article. It clearly says molybdenite transistors consume 100.000 times less energy than silicon ones in STANDBY. Not when operational. Sure, it would increase efficiency of mobile devices where you turn unneeded transistors off to save energy, but it would do nothing for when the system is operational and in use. Thus your idea of a server farm being solar powered is completely without basis.

Molybdenite's strength is in mobile applications: when the device is in standby mode it consumes a lot less energy than traditional silicon-based ones. But it has another strength here: silicon is a 3-layer material, whereas molybdenite is monolayer. This means that you can make smaller chips, or cram more stuff in a chip of the same size.

Re:Let me just say

[Belial6]

That was true up to a point. Over the last 5 or so years, we hit the 'good enough' point on computers. Power efficiency is where it is at now. With the last round of upgrades in my home, I went from an average power usage of 180kw on my computers to an average of 40kw. That doesn't even include the fact that most of my computers can actually go into stand by now.

Re:reduction in subthreshold leakage current

[GospelHead821]

In insulators, there are no energy states that involve conductive electrons. In conductors, all of the energy states involve conductive electrons. In semiconductors, electrons normally reside in a nonconductive state but you can inject some energy and the electrons will be raised to a conductive state. The amount of energy required to raise the electrons to a conductive state is that semiconductor's gap.