A new method for printing on paper using light promises to be much cheaper, and easier on the environment than the traditional ink-based printing we're used to.
Scientists have developed a special nanoparticle coating that's easy to apply to normal paper and changes colour when ultraviolet (UV) light shines on it. The colour change can be reversed when the coating is heated to 120 degrees Celsius (248 degrees Fahrenheit), and allows for up to 80 rewrites.The team of researchers from the US and China say that their new high-resolution light printing technique could be used everywhere from newspapers to labels, saving on the cost of ink and paper, and on the environmental cost of their recycling and disposing.
The special light-printable paper "has the same feel and appearance as conventional paper, but can be printed and erased repeatedly without the need for additional ink" one of the research team, Yadong Yin from the University of California, Riverside, told Phys.org.
"Our work is believed to have enormous economic and environmental merits to modern society."
Two types of nanoparticle are combined for the new coating: Prussian blue, a blue pigment used in paints that turns colourless when it gains electrons, and titanium dioxide (TiO2), a photocatalytic material that speeds up chemical reactions in response to UV light. Culled
from: Ibhaobe Samson Eromosele
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