With the development of China's economy, the demand for electronic devices is increasing, especially portable electronic devices. But do you know that many electronic devices can not be produced without rare metal indium, because indium tin oxide (ITO) is the only transparent conductive electrode material for LCD, PDP, OLED, touch screen and other flat panel display devices. ITO is a metal compound with good transparent and conductive properties. It has the characteristics of band gap, high light transmittance in visible spectrum and low resistivity. Seventy percent of the world's indium is used to produce liquid crystal displays. The liquid crystal display, flat panel display, touch screen and organic light emitting diode made of indium are mainly used in TV, computer, mobile phone, lighting and other electronic devices. First let's get to know about indium.
What is indium?
Indium is a rare metal and a scarce resource. Global estimated indium reserves are only 50,000 tons, of which 50% are recoverable. As no independent indium ore has been found, the industry produces indium metal by purifying waste zinc and tin. The recovery rate is about 50-60%. The actual output is much lower than this level.
It can be said that in today's rapid economic development, the speed of information exchange is faster and faster, television, computers, mobile phones and other information output devices have occupied our work and life. Look at these pictures below. You must be familiar with them.
Intelligent mobile phone
If classified according to the material of the screen, the current mainstream screen of smartphones can be divided into two categories: LCD (short for liquid crystal display), or liquid crystal display. The other is OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) which is called organic light-emitting diode. At present, TFT and SLCD, which are more common in the market, belong to the category of LCD. Samsung is proud that the AMOLED series of screens belong to the category of OLED. Others, such as IPS, ASV, NOVA, are not screen materials. It is more accurate to call them screen display technology.
But let me imagine, without indium, without ITO, LCD, LED waiting screen display technology, what would our life be like, will we go back decades? The following old electronic devices are always intertwined with the TV dramas of that era. Do you remember the four great masterpieces of summer vacation after 1980?
CRT display can not overcome the shortcomings of volume, weight, power consumption, environmental protection, etc. With the development of network environment and mobile office demand, CRT has been introduced into the historical arena. LCD is undoubtedly more in line with the more modern requirements of portable, environmental protection, energy saving and so on.
These old-fashioned electronic equipment pictures inadvertently pulled us to more than a decade or even decades ago, bit by bit memories touched our hearts, but with the progress of science and technology, these old-fashioned equipment has faded out of our sight. Nowadays, people are increasingly demanding portable, easy to operate and good visual effect equipment. In the industrial age of 4.0, we are experiencing an intelligent manufacturing revolution. What will our life be like in the intelligent age? What will our life be like in the future with indium?
Do you know what a sensor is? There are more than ten kinds of sensors. Among them, the function of intelligent sensors is to simulate the coordinated action of human senses and brain. It is proposed by combining the research and practical experience of long-term testing technology. It can detect real information and data in the first time. According to material classification, sensor materials are divided into four categories: semiconductor materials, ceramic materials, metal materials and organic materials. Semiconductor sensor materials are mainly silicon, followed by germanium, gallium arsenide, indium antimony, lead telluride, cadmium sulfide and so on. Indium compounds and other rare metals are used in smart home together. In fact, as early as 2010, China's household appliances industry has begun to fully lay out the intelligent era of the Internet of Things.
The Internet of Things is an important part of the new generation of information technology and an important stage of development in the era of "informatization". As the name implies, the Internet of Things is the Internet of Things. The Internet of Things (IOT) is widely used in the convergence of networks through intelligent sensing, identification and pervasive computing. It is also called the third wave of the development of information industry in the world after computers and the Internet. Sensors, controllers, machines, people and things are linked together in new ways by means of communication technologies such as local network or internet, so as to form a network of people and things, things and things, and realize informatization, remote management control and intellectualization.
If you pay attention to it, you will find that the Internet of Things has been applied to all aspects of our lives. China Mobile's "Car Free" application program, if the car is stolen, the owner will immediately receive text messages or telephone notifications, and positioning the car through GPS and other devices. In Wuxi kindergartens, the baby brushes the safe baby card in his hand, and parents will receive treasures. Bao has safely entered the classroom to confirm the text message; parents brush their parents'cards at the door, the computer screen jumps out of the baby's image, indicating that parents have picked up the baby at the school gate; Haier's Internet of Things family, users can only use the touch screen on the refrigerator to know how much refrigerator stock is left, and can inquire about the supermarket goods, and even through it to order online, of course. After that, as long as you wait at home, the goods will be delivered to your door.
Although the development and application of the Internet of Things is still a very complex project, it has indeed begun to change our lives. Now our country is also actively developing the Internet of Things industry, the development of the Internet of Things industry is full of expectations. Maybe one day, we just need to gently touch our fingers, our bodies.