New Rewritable Paper From University of California Features UV Printing & Heat Erasing

Researchers at University of California, Riverside have developed and demonstrated a new rewritable paper that uses ultraviolet light to print text which can be later erased by heat to make it reusable. While we like to believe that electronic means of communication have made paper redundant, the chemists from the University quote surveys that state that 90 percent of business information in the US is still transmitted on paper out of which most are discarded after single use. To avoid wastage of paper and not to mention ink cartridges the researchers decided to come up with a rewritable version of paper.

Rewritable Paper

The rewritable paper is made out of a glass or plastic film and uses redox dyes for printing. Redox dyes are the commercial chemicals that have colour switching properties. The dye forms the imaging layer of the paper in one of three available colours, blue, red and green, produced by using the commercial redox dyes methylene blue, neutral red and acid green respectively. Printing is carried out by exposing the non-text part of the paper to ultraviolet light which reduces the dye to its colourless form. The printed text formed on the glass or plastic film is said to last for three days. For erasing the printed text one has to heat it up to 115 degree Celsius for up to 10 minutes. While heating the film, the dye reacts with oxygen to return to its original colour.

In the prototype stage the rewritable paper can be rewritten up to 20 times. The team is planning to build another version out of paper instead of plastic or glass and increase the read-erase cycle to up to 100 times. The team sees their iteration of rewritable paper to be the perfect replacement of newsprint. Apart from savings in paper cost, their version also eliminates the need of ink cartridges. To read more about the rewritable paper visit the Chemists fabricate novel rewritable paper | University of California website or its coverage on Rewritable paper fabricated by chemists at University of California - UPI.com.

Replies

  • yadav jitendra
    yadav jitendra
    nice.........

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