On February 2nd 2017, scientists at the University of California, Riverside announced that they had developed a light printable paper. The project included researchers from Shandong University in China and Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory. The research team says that the paper consists of a new solid state photoreversible color switching system, that uses ultra violet light to produce an ink free rewritable print.
Yadong Yin, Professor of chemistry at the University of California, Riverside says that the process incorporates conventional paper that is coated with low cost, environmentally friendly materials. For the research team's experiment, they used a combination of two nano particle layers. One layer is Prussian Blue pigment and the other is titanium oxide. The two substances can applied to the paper by soaking or spaying them on.
Once applied, the plain unprinted paper turns blue. To make text appear on the page, the paper is exposed to UV light. The light excites the titanium oxide particles which causes a release of electrons that are picked up by the Prussian Blue nano particles. This causes the blue layer to turn to colorless. It's easier to read blue text on a clear background, so the background is what gets printed by light.
After the paper is printed, the text will remain for five days before it fades back to solid blue. The paper can also be erased more quickly by heating it for ten minutes. Dr Yin says that their new paper is cost competitive with conventional paper. He said, "Our immediate next step is to construct a laser printer to work with this rewritable paper, to enable fast printing."
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