Source: Discover Magazine
In furnaces and ovens all over the world, most of the material being heat-treated at 1000°F or above is metal or a metal alloy, with a fair percentage being other materials like glass and ceramics.
Thermal processing is used to heat other materials, as well, though, as we all know, but perhaps one of the most unusual purposes is found at the source article for Heat Treat Today’s Best of the Web feature for today.
Our story focuses on researchers who have developed an annealing process for eumelanin, an electrically conductive type of melanin — yes that natural chemical pigment that gives color to our eyes, hair, and skin, and which protects our skin from harmful radiation, yet which also can lead to cancer. Vacuum heating films of eumelanin at 1112°F (600°C) modifies its properties and makes it more useful for modern biotechnology applications and perhaps even to create devices to help treat Parkinson’s, control artificial limbs, and more.
The researchers have published their findings in an article titled, “Evidence of Unprecedented High Electronic Conductivity in Mammalian Pigment Based Eumelanin Thin Films After Thermal Annealing in Vacuum” in the journal Frontiers in Chemistry.
Read more: “High-tech Melanin Might Help Put Technology Inside Our Bodies”
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