Abstract
AS TELEVISION SETS EVOLVE, SO do the materials used to make them. The hottest TVs on the market now are flat-panel models. Consumer electronics retailers say plasma and liquid-crystal display (LCD) TVs were top sellers in 2005. And Corning, the world's largest maker of LCD glass, recently predicted that, in 2007, LCD TVs will account for 25% of all TVs sold. As electronics makers watch flat-screen products' popularity and profits advance, a tiny problem continues to nag at them: The cost of indium tin oxide (ITO), a transparent conducting material integral to these devices, has surged in the past few years. Indium, the raw material for ITO, is produced as a by-product of zinc mining. In 2003, 1 kg of indium cost $170, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. That price soared to S810/kg in 2005, driven by the demand for LCD and plasma displays. ...
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