If you want to make a computer, you’ve got to break a few eggs. A new data storage device made from crushed-up eggshells could possibly lead the way to faster, greener computers.
The new device has resistive random access memory, or ReRAM, which is a strong contender for the next generation of data storage. ReRAM could be faster, provide a higher storage density and use less power than more common methods like flash memory and dynamic RAM.
The team from the Guizhou Institute of Technology in China bought a random selection of eggs from a market and ground the shells for three hours to produce a fine, nanoscale powder. After drying, the powder was dissolved in a solution and coated onto a substrate to form the electrolyte part of the memory chip – the bit that the electric current crosses.
Resistive memory relies on materials that remember the change in electrical resistance when a voltage is applied to them. The team flowed a current through the device to see if it worked as a ReRAM data storage.
It was able to write a 1 or a 0 into its memory 100 times before breaking down. This is a far cry from the billions of cycles other materials can handle, but still impressive, says Kees de Groot at Southampton University in the UK.
“For such an eccentric article, it is actual, solid, interesting science,” de Groot says.
Egg powder computers are still a long way off, though. “With respect to current applications, I think it is more of a curiosity,” de Groot says. But as a sustainable alternative to electrolytes in the future, eggshells could be promising, he says.
Journal reference: Current Applied Physics, DOI: 10.1016/j.cap.2016.09.018
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