Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — Who wouldn't want a computer that is stunningly fast, small, super energy-efficient with a huge amount of memory?
University of Utah researchers are developing organic magnets that they say may one day change electronics.
Chemistry postgraduate student Adora Graham helped develop the magnets. She and fellow University of Utah postgraduate student Andrew Simonson worked in a vacuum chamber with various required chemicals that combine to form the organic magnets.
The result is a glass vial containing powder. The powder is the newly developed organic magnet — not traditional iron or cobalt, but organic carbon.
Chemistry professor Dr. Joel Miller thinks about using them for electronic applications and said his dream for organic magnetism is computers, cellphones, any high-tech electronic device, made five or 10 times better.
"We like to believe it will be smaller, more reliable, and with more data density or storage, and operate with less energy," he explained. "And maybe we can do more complex things that we can't even dream that we can do now."
Some electrical engineers are already starting to consider using these organic magnets instead of the silicon and metals used today, Miller said.
They could be faster and more energy-efficient, and they're easier and cheaper to produce, he said.
