钠β-Al2O3另外用途

A transparent transistor that could be used in electronic displays
透明晶体管可用于电子显示屏
FAMILIAR friends can nevertheless sometimes surprise. Such has been the case with a compound used to make the first solid-state batteries some 40 years ago. Researchers have now found that it can also be used to build transistors that are transparent and hence suitable for use in electronic books and head-up displays.
熟悉的朋友有时也会感到惊讶。

四十年前用于制造第一个固态电池的化合物即是如此。

研究者最近发现这种化合物可以用来制造透明的晶体管，而这种晶体管可以用于电子书和平视显示器。

Sodium beta-alumina was discovered in the 19th century when the process of extracting aluminium from its ore, bauxite, was being developed. It is formed of alternating layers of aluminium oxide and sodium ions. In 1967 researchers at the Ford Motor Company discovered that it conducts these ions as though it were a liquid. That spawned the first solid-state batteries.
钠β-氧化铝在19世纪，从矿石，铝土岩中提取铝的过程中被发现，然后一直发展。

钠β-氧化铝是由氧化铝和钠离子的交替层组成。

1967年，福特汽车公司的研究人员发现，这些导电的离子好像是液体一样。

这就促成了第一个固态电池的产生。

For two decades or so, the stuff was the darling of battery engineering. Then better ionic conductors and more promising designs emerged, and its popularity waned. Now a team of researchers led by Howard Katz of Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore,has discovered that sodium beta-alumina has other interesting electrical properties which make it suitable for building transistors.
在长达二十年的时间里，这种材料一直是电池技术的宠儿，但是，随着更好的离子导体发现以及更佳的设计方案的出现，这种材料慢慢地不为人所知，最近霍华德约翰斯霍普金斯大学由卡茨领导的研究小组在巴尔的摩发现β-氧化铝还具有一些其他有意思的电特性，这种电特性使之非常适合制造晶体管。

Transistors are the workhorses of electronics. They are switches that enable one electric current to control the passage of another. Linked together on the surfaces of silicon chips, they form the logic gates that do the calculations in computers, mobile phones, television sets and other electronic gadgets.
晶体管是电子技术的重要组成。

晶体管是一种可以使电流控制另一个通道的开关。

晶体管在硅晶片表面连接起来，然后形成逻辑门，可用于计算机、手机、电视以及其他数码产品的计算单元。

Dr Katz and his colleagues found that, although sodium ions flow freely in the spaces between adjacent aluminium-oxide layers of sodium beta-alumina, they cannot pass through those layers. By applying a small voltage at right-angles to the layers they found they could pull the ions towards the aluminium oxide, clamping them in place and thus controlling when the current flowed—the essence of a transistor. They report their result in the current issue of Nature Materials.
卡茨博士和他的同事发现，尽管钠离子可以在钠β-氧化铝中相邻的氧化铝层的空间中自由流动，但是它们不能流过这些层。

通过在多层之间合适的角度加一个小电压后，他们发现
可以使钠离子流向氧化铝，然后固定于此，从而控制当前的流向——晶体管的本质。

相关研究发表在最新一期《自然-材料学》杂志上。

As a bonus that could help commercialise the technology, the technique that the team used to deposit the compound is relatively straightforward and cheap. The researchers worked with sodium beta-alumina in its liquid form, which enabled them to spread it easily onto a surface in precisely the pattern required for a printed circuit. When they heated it to 400ºC, it turned into a solid, transparent film.
为了促使这种技术商业化的利益，该小组使用了相对简单且廉价的技术来存放这种化合物。

研究人员利用了钠β-氧化铝液态化的特性，通过模板就可将其轻易而精确地嵌入印刷电路之中。

当加热到400℃，然后就转变为固态的透明膜。

Dr Katz has now used sodium beta-alumina to build transistors on both glass substrates and flexible, plastic ones. His team thinks its new approach will be particularly suitable for use in portable devices, because it operates at low voltages. If so, an old flame may be rekindled.
卡茨博士现在用钠β-氧化铝在玻璃和灵活的塑料基板上制造晶体管。

他的小组认为由于晶体管的工作电压很低,这将是一个尤为适合便携式设备的新方法。

如果是这样的话，真是老树逢新春。