2

Recently, the Blankety Blank game show featured as a prize a "transparent toaster". I was disappointed to see that the elements were conventional wire and could easily be seen through the transparent case.

Would it be possible to build an entirely transparent toaster using indium tin oxide elements? My concern would be any limits in W/m or K without material degradation. I know that indium tin oxide is used for window defrosting, so it can clearly carry a current sufficient to melt ice, but the requirements for toasting seem likely to be much higher as you can clearly see black-body radiation in the visible range in a toaster.

What are the capabilities in terms of power density for indium tin oxide these days? As a ceramic I would expect it to retain its bulk properties up to a very high temperature, but perhaps the film-construction process would add extra constraints, losing integrity or delaminating?

Dannie
  • 296
  • 1
  • 5
  • 1
    I'm not an expert, so I won't make this an *answer*, but I can't imagine it wouldn't delaminate very quickly. For obvious reasons, you can't make free-hanging wires out of it like you can nichrome, so different thermal expansion between the substrate and the ITO would cause delamination and breakage. It's also a semiconductor, so it has a negative temperature coefficient of resistance around room temperature; this may require some different control systems, though as it gets to red hot it will start to self-regulate the same way nichrome does. – Hearth Jan 30 '23 at 16:21
  • 1
    Coincidentally, ITO *does* have about the same room temperature resistivity as nichrome (the alloy usually used for heating elements), though. (Incidentally, there's no need to capitalize indium tin oxide. You can write it as "ITO" or "indium tin oxide", but "Indium Tin Oxide" looks a bit strange.) – Hearth Jan 30 '23 at 16:23
  • Sorry about that. I was taught many years ago that elements should be capitalised (no longer a thing, in English at least) and still have to struggle not to do so. Not capitalizing oxide given Indium or Tin were didn't occur to me. I'll change it to keep up with the modern world! I'll change it. – Dannie Jan 30 '23 at 17:52
  • Was that ever a rule? I know element *symbols* are always capitalized, but even in old texts I've never seen the elements capitalized when written out, not in English anyway. They probably are in German. – Hearth Jan 30 '23 at 19:29
  • 2
    ...Not that it really matters, anyway. Your point gets across whether you type it as indium tin oxide, Indium Tin Oxide, or INDIUM TIN OXIDE. – Hearth Jan 30 '23 at 19:46

0 Answers0