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AN ALTERNATIVE TO pricey carbon nanotubes for field emission displays (FEDs) looks like it's on the cards, according to today's Nikkei Business Daily.
The newspaper reports that boffins at Yamanashi University and the Tokyo Institute of Tech have hit on a cement-like substance that could herald inexpensive flat panel displays in the future.

The researchers say that an electride based on calcium and aluminium oxides – used in cement -- can be assembled to make a nanocage array, a bit like a sponge.

If such a sponge is chemically treated, the researchers claim that the material will then be filled with electrons and can be used as a FED.

FEDs need very little power to run them, but carbon nanotubes cost a fortune to make, the newspaper says, estimating their cost as thousands of yen a gram. But the cement-like substance could cost only thousands of yen per ton. The R&D is likely to cost quite a bit more.

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Source: TheInquirer