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?

[arivanov]

Probably not pure enough.

You need 99.995+% purity for most semiconductor stuff (99.999+ for CPUs and memory) which can be achieved only via zone smelting. In order to zone smelt the material needs to be able to re-crystalize after being heated locally in the first place. If it does not you can forget using it as a production semiconductor. There are in fact plenty of materials out there which have electron gaps are more "interesting" than silicon. We just have not figured out how to grow to purify them in quantity.

As far as MoS2 is concerned it does not melt and does not recrystalize (it decomposes straight away) so zone smelting is not an option. It decomposes straight away. So frankly I do not see how you can achieve 99.99+ purity to do anything useful with it.