MXene-Related Stocks Soar After Korean Scientists Claim 'Breakthrough' In New Mass Production Technique
Ten days after the already-skeptical scientific community tried recreating a new superconductor that operates at room temperature under standard atmospheric pressure, known as "LK-99," but all failed, yet another so-called 'revolutionary' material has sparked a frenzy after a research paper about new techniques for mass production was released.
On Thursday, the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) announced the development of a new technology that can mass-produce "MXene," an inorganic compound that "has high electrical conductivity and can be combined with various metal compounds, making it a material that can be used in various industries such as semiconductors, electronic devices, and sensors."
KIST said the new production method is "expected that this will open the way to mass production, which was impossible until now."
The research by authors, including Namitha Anna Koshi, was published in the scientific journal Nanoscale. They further noted:
MXene has different application fields depending on the value of the Hall scattering factor. If the value is lower than 1 , it can be used for high-performance transistors , high-frequency generating devices , high-efficiency sensors, and photodetectors. If the value is higher than 1, it can be used for thermoelectric materials and magnetic sensors etc. can be applied . Considering that the size of MXene is less than a few nanometers, it is possible to drastically reduce the size of the applicable device and the amount of power required .
"Unlike previous studies focused on the production and characteristics of pure MXene, it is significant that we developed a new method for surface molecular analysis to easily classify manufactured MXene. Based on this, we expect that mass production of MXene with uniform quality will be possible ," Lee Seung-chul, director of the Korea - India Cooperation Center at KIST, wrote in a statement.
Bloomberg noted that MXene-related stocks jumped on Friday:
Hankook & Co. jumps as much as 25% before erasing more than half of the gains, while Kyungdong Invest surges by daily limit of 30%; Kornic Automation +30%, Naintech +30%, Huvis +30%.
This reminds us of the early August excitement about the LK-99 research note that was supposed to change the world.
"The name of the metal is LK-99. It is a cutting edge ambient pressure room temperature super conductor. It has both huge military and civilian applications. And that's not even the best part, John, you can make it in your oven at home." pic.twitter.com/ZHEWqlLESS
— The Klendathu Writoooooooooor (@KlendathuCap) August 2, 2023
Then in a few short days, the hype about the new superconductor collapsed after several labs had no success replicating it.
