This alien-like metal may one day power your electronics
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 มิ.ย. 2021
- Bismuth has been around for thousands of years, yet it’s only been used in a handful of applications - and mostly to treat stomach ailments. But as the world looks for cleaner and safer energy, bismuth might soon become the star of the heavy metals family.
Read more: bit.ly/3vvdx5q
Subscribe: bit.ly/2FqJZMl
Like Verge Science on Facebook: bit.ly/2hoSukO
Follow on Twitter: bit.ly/2Kr29B9
Follow on Instagram: goo.gl/7ZeLvX
Read More: www.theverge.com
Community guidelines: bit.ly/2D0hlAv
Subscribe to Verge on TH-cam for explainers, product reviews, technology news, and more: goo.gl/G5RXGs - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
![พาแม่บินครั้งแรก..เกือบวูบ! ให้เกาหลีเยียวยาใจ I Korea Ep.1 [Seoul] x อุงเอิง](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/waL3__dEQBU/mqdefault.jpg)
![เก่งแต่ลับหลัง (FINSTA) - ส้ม มารี (Zom Marie) Ft. Punch 4EVE [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/OOolBU2aC70/mqdefault.jpg)
What other items currently made from lead could bismuth help replace?
thanks for such amazing video
@@septromnation7840 well that's revolutionairy!
Why haven't we been using bismuth instead of lead, considering that lead is toxic to humans?
Bullets are the only thing I can think of, since lead has been taken out of petrol
@@bri1085 in the shotgun world bismuth is used a lot for hunting waterfowl. A few other metals also considered non toxic are used as well
Bismuth is that positive dude living together with a bunch of toxic roommates.
"Hey Polonium" "What's that punk" "Oh, you" *Laughing track intensifies*
bi is radioactive u dumdum
covid positive
It's still toxic, just less toxic than lead or mercury.
@@sukioku8784 Of course it is. It radiates positivity :D
Mike Tyson was ahead of his time. He knew it's true value. After one of his fights, I saw him lean over the guy he just knocked out, and said, "Been a plesha doin bismuth with ya."
💀💀
Underrated comment
Bismuth is how he gets minerals in his diet.
I'm crying right now omfg I'm going to hell
You sumthin else man lol
"Safe to eat, but also fun to play with"
This is a criminally underrated play doh reference.
To be fair, Bismuth is not safe to eat. It is less poisonous thant his neighbors on the periodic table, but it can still cause some problems. The studies on this are fairly recent, but it has been linked to encephalopathy and some countries are advising to avoid the use of Pepto Bismol
Cool cool
@@hmm8602 perfect example of the neurological damages caused by bismuth
@@VictouffeVideos stfu let the man enjoy his icecream
@@VictouffeVideos , of course eating large amounts (too much) of anything would be harmful. Like, Paracetamol is a good medicine, but is also not something you should use frequently.
I heard „never to replace“ and just know companies will not use it for just that exact reason
Ya sorry guys it doesn’t exactly sound compatible with the profit motive
Lmao, so true
It only requires one to do so..
It would make sense for a company that manufactures an appliance to implement self-charging (eg. no need for batteries) because it can be used as a competitive advantage in marketing. Companies that produce appliances will like this, but companies that produce batteries won't.
There is a story about a farming equipment company in Germany that made an amazing durable machine for mixing fertilizer salt with water to spray on fields.
It worked so well that pretty much everyone who could have use for one had one. And being so durable, they didn't need to replace them for decades. Company went out of business because there was nobody left to sell to.
Finally: gamer metal
RGB metal
it's gonna say the n-word
Gamerrrr metal
@@Dushmann_ nickel
Gaymer
Still waiting for graphene to take over the tech industry 😅
Bruh I know right what happened to "the graphene future"
@@KamiEpix Batteries became either unstable or not what it was all hyped about, there are videos on what happen but that's basically it
@@SabentHD yea I'm aware thanks for the notif tho
@@KamiEpix Actually graphene is finding it's way into batteries, and more recently into headphone and speaker membranes. It's the fact that it is very expensive to manufacture that's prevented it from becoming more prevalent in the tech world.
@@assafshakked7988 hence the original comment
Ah yes, naturally RGB metal.
Underrated comment.
That's actually useful
It's a Gaming Metal!
If you hit it in your friend he will fall in 240 fps.
bismuth computer casing + rgb??
i remember a chemistry teacher showing that bismuth is safe by swallowing a small sample of it
the next day: Hello, I'm tom your substitute teacher
Obviously. He could have bought some Pepto-Bismol at a drugstore and just swallowed that.
@@pvic6959 😂
AKA Danger!
And everyone clapped.
I saw the beautiful angular spirals before and bismuth became a real favorite of mine on the periodic table, but I didn't know one had to melt it first to get that effect. Thanks for teaching me new things! I'm honestly baffled as to why this element gets so little attention normally. And now it just became sooooo much more awesome and useful.
ULTIMATE COOL COOL
Bismuth: Don't worry I can fix it
So, these indoor light harvesting devices will still need a small battery, which will have a finite lifetime. Unless the power consumption becomes so small that supercapacitors can handle it. So indoor light harvesting would just have two stages of inefficiency, one from your (hopefully) LED lights, and another for the bismuth semiconductor efficiency. Vs directly recharging at an infrequent interval.
The benefit there is really in convenience, that you can let it do its own thing, it’s not really going to help reduce battery materials consumption. It will need to buffer its own power and that small battery will get hammered and will probably need replaced after a few years anyway.
There may indeed be an overall reduction in metal used for the battery, which may still exist even after factoring in the extra metal in the photovoltaic, but that’s still a smaller benefit than the complete elimination of battery consumption suggested in this video.
Nevertheless, getting more different materials for photovoltaics is a big deal, especially considering we can make multi-layered solar panels which all together collect a much wider spectrum of light and improve their output. I’m just a bit dubious about the specific battery eliminating future arising from these. But adding this tech into solar farming is going to be good.
All valid points! Robert mentioned supercapacitors in our interview as a much-needed area of research to expand on this technology. For what it’s worth, my amorphous silicon calculator from the mid 2000s is still kicking without ever needed a battery change... but if I cover the cell, then it’s worthless.
@@VergeScience totally understandable. A neat thing about those calculators is they usually run directly from the panel voltage, with a wide tolerance in the electronics. Very minimal buffering like a small capacitor.
Of course the downside is, as you say, if you cover it it’s useless. There could very well be a lot of IoT devices that are acceptable to run in that fashion, such as a camera which only runs when your floodlight gets activated anyway. But certainly other types of devices will need to be able to run all through the night.
Supercapacitors are a promising field of research, if they can be made to store enough charge for 12-24 hours they could really potentially replace batteries for things like solar garden lights (which are famed for wearing out their batteries’ ~1000 cycles after only 2-3 years of daily cycling, since they’re always-on at night they’re far harder on their batteries than something like a smart doorbell). But with the current state of the art, it’s not there yet and we’d still need regular battery cells to go along with the indoor photovoltaics.
Thanks for the reply!
😮u took all these efforts to write a comment
I don't think you can say it's inefficient without testing it
@@pneumonoultramicroscopicsi4065 please note any comments about conversion losses are not linked to whether it’s a good idea or not. The convenience factor is absolutely real and would have real usability benefits compared to having to recharge a device every few months or weeks or days.
Now, about your main point, you can’t say _how_ inefficient it will be without testing it, but thermodynamics requires every time you convert energy from one form to another, you have some waste energy. Something is very good when it’s 80-90% efficient, but you still want to avoid needless energy conversion stages if possible. And lots of things, most things in engineering, are ~30% efficient. Which just makes it an even better idea to minimise conversion steps. That’s just a thing about (electrical) engineering, separate and apart from any of the details of these specific types of semiconductors. And, like, silicon can be anywhere from a few % to ~20% efficient in solar panels, so there’s a wide range of possibilities in practical use for this new type of semiconductor as well. Spending 10W of light on 5W of charging is decent. 10W of light on 0.5W of charging is not so great, depending on how heavy your chips and workloads inside are.
Bismuth is like that one rapper that is finally getting attention for his talent.
Hopsin
Or a Heavy Metal band
Nipsey
Why rapper tho
Like Chrisxpatrick?
Imagine in the future ppl would shake hands and say "It's a pleasure to do 'Bismuth' with u" while trading
Lmao thanks for the laugh 😂
Lmao, Nice Steven Universe reference!
Cartoon Network watchers know where the reference is from 🤣
Don't take life for granite
Here's an application. Window shades made out of leightweigt bismuth solar panel strips.
When you already have to keep most of the sunlight out of your room, might as well capture it and use it for power.
ingenious!
@5:36
I one day wish to make everything outside solar powered. Cars, buildings, towers
DougDoug you chose the best element to invest in right now.
i was seeing if mentioned doug
I clicked on this thinking the exact same thing. BISMUTH!
I feel like I see a clip like this once a year.
Mighty Uchicha!
Definitely
Exactly what I was thinking. I would like to see a video of a new kind of technology like this *actually implemented* for once
@@cekan14 yeah I would like a revist to all these new 8nventions which were supposed to be revolutionary but no where to be found I always think what happened to all the innovation i saw in year old videos like these
@@cekan14 well bismuth is already being used in certain trades ie "green bismuth"
I literally only know this exists because of steven universe lmao
Yah, me too
Sameeee
I tried watching that but I couldn't
I do because of Nile red
Ahh the nostalgia
"Be smooth!"
-bismuth
this is why innovation is important, We can use a lot of materials that we thought is useless into something that we can use, and more. It shakes up industries.
True. Innovation is such a lovely thing.
Conspiracy Nuts: Pepto Bismol makes you magnetic!
I read it as makes your nuts magnetic
Pepto Bismol makes you photovoltaic! /s
Bismuth is actually the most Diamagnetic metal, which means that in the presence of an external magnetic field, it produces an opposing magnetic field. This is different from induction, which requires a moving magnetic field to generate a current, which then creates its own opposing magnetic field. This property of diamagnetism means that it can be used in tandem with regular magnets to levitate small magnets stably. Look up diamagnetic levitation for some cool videos
How else is the CIA supposed to detect you?
That’s why poop sticks to the toilet bowl.
Learn something new everyday, I never knew that Pepto-Bismol had bismuth in it
You might've found out earlier if you were watching Chubbyemu's videos.
I pray somebody in a position of power actually puts these awesome metals to good use in our everyday lives
I just finished a thesis design project which leverages interior lighting to power an IOT device, I had to make some sacrifices to ensure the power supply with conventional PV that is already on the market. If this technology becomes available in the near future I'll have to revisit this design, because this kind of improved efficiency opens a lot of doors!
Now the Decepticons have reason to invade us 🤖
🤖
@@Bubumuk autobots roll out
🚗
For anyone wondering, a larger band gap would mean that it requires a higher energy photon to create an electrical current. Higher energy photons have shorter wavelengths. Infrared has very low energy and long wavelength, UV is high energy short wave, and visible light is in the middle (:
A quick look at the various bismuth compound bandgaps and they all seem way too high. The lowest I found at a quick glance was 2.7 eV which means you can't absorb any light greater than 460nm. That's throwing away most of the visible spectrum which makes the indoor use case ultra questionable since you would be only capturing the blue peak emitted from LEDs. Furthermore, if it's just a single junction you not going to get more than 33% efficiency (theoretical limit) so how big a panel are you intending to use on "devices" indoors especially considering that you not getting anywhere close to 1kW/m^2 that one can obtain outdoors. Perhaps Bismuth compounds could be better suited for power electronics semiconductors but Galium Nitride is already capturing that opportunity. Nonetheless was an interesting video and thank you for releasing educational entertainment. We need a bunch more of it nowadays.
This. The devil is in the details and this video has very few details or comparisons.
I fully agree, this video is severely lacking in facts and numbers. Do they think we're too stupid to warrant a thorough explanation of the issue and solution at hand? Sorry if that is harsh, I just can't stand these superficial videos that don't have any real content. Now, that being said onto some proper content:
It should have been linked by the creators of this video, but here is at least one relevant papers by the Professor: doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201909983 (linked here: www.imperial.ac.uk/people/r.hoye/research.html)
The paper has some good information. Apparently the video is about a Bismuth-oxygen-iodine compound which does indeed have a useful bandgap:
"We previously measured the bandgap of BiOI to be 1.9 eV, and the absorption coefficient to be on the order of 10e-4 cm−1 above the band edge. While the bandgap is wider and absorption coefficient smaller than the related BiI3 compound (1.67 eV and ≈105 cm−1, respectively), the bandgap of BiOI is close to the *optimum for top cells* in four-terminal tandems with silicon, and the absorption coefficient adequate for achieving a spectroscopically limited maximum efficiency *exceeding 20% in single*-*junction* devices" (emphasis mine)
Also rather defect resistant as is known from perovskites.
IoT devices consume 10 mW at most.
@ They actually have to do things like power 16 Amp relays. That is more power than you are suggesting
Ahh yes bismuth the blacksmith in steven universe will now be smithing energy.
20 years later: Still waiting for the device
Computing devices in 20 years will probably look a lot different
@@Shoeboxcat7 alright, 20 years later: waiting for lot different computing device.
@@Shoeboxcat7 20 years is a long time. Lot can change we will we be in late 30s by then
The initial part of the soundtrack sounds so much like the opening themesong for The Expanse
It's amazing how some things naturally form in germetric shapes just by the way the atoms are locked together.
Steve Universe's Bismuth is an alien, yup.
I knew about Bismuth for quite some time, these metals are absolutely beautiful.
Thanks, Steven Universe!
3:50 oh no. common PV cells rely heavily on visible light. there are cells though develop for other spectrum or wide spectrum.
tbh bismuth was my favorite element as a kid
Can't help but remember Bismuth
*Flashbacks to that one DougDoug stream*
That's what I was thinking 😂
My time to shine
😊
Excellent. I learned a lot. I have a tiny bit of extra info. Bismuth is also the key ingredient of a powder that's put on skin wounds and helps disinfect them. In the Netherlands, it's sold under the name Dutimon, but it used to be called Dermatol. I always have it in my medicine cabinet and have been impressed with its powerful effect for decades.
I always loved bismuth for some reason
Let’s get down to bismuth. I ain’t got no time to play around, what is this?
sigh
DON'T WORRY I CAN FIX IT!!!
Bismuth is also used in dental medicine as a radio-opacifier in pulp capping materials
Whenever i was a weird little kid, bismuth was my favorite element. I guess it still is. Very cool looking stuff
What an interview @Verge
Now I want to buy this crystal to have around at home. That looks so cool!
Everyone: Wow Bismuth is so useful and could revolutionise the world
Me: Clicks because of Steven Universe
Nice to see that bismuth is becoming more industrially important and I didn’t waste 2 years of university research in bismuth properties and potential applications in batteries 😅
That's interesting.
I've always found bismuth to look so amazing. And I own a few pieces from a local rock/Crystal shop.
And I never knew the possibilities of it.
Let's get down to Bismuth!
Bismuth lines in steven universe
AND it is diamagnetic (i.e. it repels all magnetic poles, albeit very weakly)
Bismuth is a crystal gem... if... yknow yknow
I love this stuff. Especially when it colors. Been a fan.
This was such an awesome episode!
Combine this with the kinetic energy technology in Charles Greenwood's HumanCar and DuetGen, and the incinolet or HomeBiogas2.0 toilet and propane generating tent, and our future would be COMPLETELY awesome and sustainable, on land, water, or air! (air requiring solar ship) :)
Awesome, well composed and written science journalism.
Cool cool
Thanks for making bismuth more expensive in this covid times for fun consuption
Bismuth is a new favorite of mine
Or as Mike Tyson would call it, “bithmith”.
🤣🤣🤣
Blob
DON'T WORRY I CAN FIX IT - bismuth
Bismuth exist.
Elon musk : hold my lithium
I can't wait until nile red shows us how to extract bismuth from Pepto Bismol
Great video 👍🏼 NileRed also did a video on extracting the Bismuth from Pepto bismol which is worth a watch
Love this
Wow, this element is safe (even safe to eat). I want to try melting it and see the unique structure. Do you think this metal is expensive?
It's not terribly expensive, There's a pricing for about $30 for 2 LBS for what I found, I converted that to grams and found that it is about 3 cents a gram, based on the price found on amazon.
Cheap on ebay. Yt vids show how to melt to crystallize. Someone once said when it was understood, it would be valuable one day. I think they were refering to other properties relating to fields and power gen.
Was in San Diego a few days ago and there was a little shop that sold crystals, they were also selling huge chunks of bismuth. I had showed my friends because it was a really interesting thing to look at but now I have a feeling I’m gonna regret not buying that huge piece
great video good job !! Bismuth is very interesting.
I read recently that a fragment of layered metal recovered from a ufo crash site, roswell I think is made from bismuth and other rarely used metals
Future metamaterial
Definition below for those interested
A usually artificial material that exhibits special properties not normally found in nature, such as a negative index of refraction, in its interaction with electromagnetic radiation, sound, or other wave phenomena. Such properties are a consequence of the metamaterial's structure at the microscopic or macroscopic level, rather than of the underlying properties of its components.
n.
, (physics) any material that obtains its electromagnetic properties from its structure rather than from its chemical composition; especially a material engineered to have features of a size less than that of the wavelength of a class of electromagnetic radiation
Really looks like something you could find In cyberpunk, so cool.
Like steam punk?
good job! i like this series
Did a study on this for levitation and diamagnetism and energy a few yrs ago, cool!
Clean energy is serious bismouth.
_(No I'm not sorry)_
Out!
@@theblackbaron4119 Who the hell are you to tell that, huh?
WOW, THAT'S AWESOME
I love how I haven't heard of this metal until now
Pretty cool info, thanks!
Crystal seems as if they are 3D printed. Complete with layer lines
Sort of but not really
Man I remember the same title for Graphene
I have a chunk of Bismuth that was sadly broken up in the mail when it was being sent to me. Even then, it's still a beautiful little metal.
Also, if or possibly when bismuth becomes a big component of the electronic industry, I will take any chance I get to gut scrap electronics and salvage the bismuth to melt it down into those crystals
Bismuth made tools for the crystal gems
3:23. Ahh, much safer shotgun shot
Bismuth could be better jewellery than gold or palladium.
for bismuth to work as an indoor solar panel the efficiency would have to be legendary for it to make any sense
'Bismuth' I've never heard that name in years...
This will push type cost of buismuth prices up along with my pepto meds..
@Box Addict the average American diet is sixteen burgers a week. If he changes, the others will call him weak and effeminate.
Dang, someone already unlocked Damascus on it.
I can't believe you did a video about bismuth and never once mentioned it's unique magnetic properties.
The shapes of it....it blows my mind 💯💯💯💯
Most important question, Does it explode?
Sadly no.... therefor its useless for American to spread freedom...... wait its heavy
Freedom seeds by replacing lead.
America is always willing to trade seeds for oil
@@preppertechnicianee6013 "oh no, you said this will change our life but we can not blow up innocent children and civillain with this, therefore it is not worth to invest and research"
Explodo
Imagine of there was a metal that can also be used in electronics that when those electronics are thrown in a plot of land will actually make the soil contain more minerals for plants.
that's not how any of this works
@@Mr_Doon I phrased that poorly. I know that bismuth doesnt work that way. It's simply non toxic to the environment, it doesnt make the soil contain more nutrients. I just said (paraphrasing here): What if there was a metal that makes the soil contain more nutrients for plants?
@@realtalk361 Those metals are called minerals
@@Mr_Doon ok good to know, thanks for extra info
@@realtalk361 Would be cool if we could make our electronics out of minerals, but alas, it's a harsh world with harsh realities
Am I the only one who gets reminded of the Vex in D2?
Seems to substantiate some type of practical use for the supposed uap crash recovery bismuth layered meta material.
That metal looks something we can find on cybertron. 😅
_"Low melting point"_
_"Replace solar panels"_
Yeah....
Melting point is 500F (280c)
I feel bad for you if the sun in your part of the world reaches 500 F
And here I was thinking he had an upset stomach and forgot to take the Pepto Bismol out of the frame lol
It's so weird when u read so much about these elements and when u see them it makes u so much more interested
lol didn’t know this was real. Saw this in MH Rise
I LOST it when I discovered the large Bismuth crystal in Rise!
First I was like "God damn, not another 'this could replace something and make it better' videos that will never come true".
Then I was like "Hmm.. so Bismuth is cheaper, so this could be realistic".
Then it was mentioned that things like batteries could live a lifetime...
Nope, not gonna see this technology implemented or supported.
We are living in a selfish, greedy and destructive corporate world. All these companies who create batteries will have their income lowered and drastically endangered. They don't want this. They will try to bribe, corrupt and do anything to slow, sabotage or even halt the production. And what about the boring companies try to create these battery farms? If the batteries can be used there, why would they? They would require to either adapt their factories to use bismuth as batteries, hire a third partner to deliver and then there is no further cost and payment for frequently switching out batteries. Like all things, a CEO or stakeholders can't live with the minimum money like middleclass, they want money. More. More. More. Until they are revered as gods, gods of materialism who think they've won, but no one will miss them once they are gone, only the missed opportunity of the Reaper to take them sooner away, because every breath they take they live to destroy this world, ours - not theirs.
deep.
this is titanic deep
Covid vaccines are a perfect example of this in effect. There already existed a cheep method to end the pandemic. But the company that had this method self deemed it as “unsafe” to accelerate vaccine production. All they want is money. The consumer is an afterthought
taking care of bismuth
i want that as a showpiece
Heard this before, Diesel was better for the environment 10 years ago. Need I say more
Try drinking gasoline
Beautiful Documentary.
with this wr can finally get down to bismuth
"Taking care of Bismuth! Everyday!
Taking care of Bismuth! Every way!
Taking care of Bismuth! It's Alright!
Taking care of Bismuth! And Working overtime!"